Cheating Death
by grei-eba
Summary: COMPLETE- The plain in which McFLY was suffers an accident and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Loads of bad thing happen to some of them as they try to get some help and the group cant seem to find the way back. suck at summaries, seriously
1. Lost

**I'm already back with a new story :D** **Hope you like it!**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Dedicated to Vicky... Who should better review! ¬¬**

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**I heard a very distant, familiar voice calling my name. A pair of hands were on my shoulders, shacking my whole body. It felt wrong. A strong pain in my head started to get stronger and deeper. I cursed out loud and my voice felt weird. Suddenly it all hit me; the cold, the familiar voice that now felt a lot closer, the screaming of the people that sorrounded me, the pain in my body, specially my head...

"Dougie!" Harry's voice said again "Dougie, can you hear me, for Christ's sake!?"

He sounded extremely worried.

I opened one eye while I put my hands over my ears; so much noise was hurting my head even more. Around us was complete chaos; people running, crying, blood, everything was out of place, the luggage, the plane sits.

"Yeah" I mumbled.

"Come on, let's get you out of here" he said and forced my arm around his shoulders. We both stood up and awkwardly walked out of the plane... Or what was left of it. My eyes looked in surprise at the landscape sorrounding us; tress, mountains, snow... And _nothing_ else.

"What the hell happened?" I asked.

"I don't know" Harry said, anger in his voice.

"Where's Tom and Danny?" I said suddenly in fear, realizing what was happening.

"Over there" he said, pointing at two people in the floor just some meters away from us.

He let me go and I hurried to my friends' side. I knelt down next to Tom, Danny was laying in the floor, his eyes opened, tears on them, breathing heavily. He had a cover over him and Tom was impatiently looking around.

"Dougie, are you alright?" he asked me, not looking at me into my eyes, but something in the side of my head. I followed his eyes with my fingers and felt something warm; blood.

"I'm bleeding!" I said, panicking.

"No, no, don't do that" Tom said "It's nothing, it's ok, just a small cut, I swear, but you must have hit your head pretty hard"

"Here..." Harry said and handed me a long piece of soft fabric "Tie is around your head, don't let the cut get infected"

"What's wrong with Danny?" I asked.

Tom and Harry looked at each other.

"Something cut me in the chest... Pretty deep" Danny said.

"What!?" I said "Are you..." I wanted to say 'dying', but the very thought was horrible to me "Ok?"

"Yeah, sure, dude..." he smiled at me but it was obvious he was in pain.

"We're waiting to see if any of the people here is a doctor, but nobody's paying attention" Tom explained.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked.

"No idea" Harry sighed.

"Everybody stop!" a strong voice said, a voice that belonged to a man in a very nice dark-blue suit, he looked around 30 and 35, very handsome but with a serious face. He had scraches on his face. Everbody stopped at the sound of his voice; the pilot "My name is Christopher Trembley and I am the pilot of this plane. I ask you all to remain in peace, do not panic. There's people hurt and we've got to hurry to be able to help them"

"What happened to the plane!?" a young girl asked.

"I'm still not sure, I believe one of the engines failed."

"Where the hell are we?" a rather old man asked.

"I'm not exactly sure, somewhere in New Zealand"

"Oh, God..." I heard Harry mumbled next to me.

"Now, listen to me" Christopher said, he talked like the leader he was "I'm going to try to get help, but I need someone to come with me; the bigger the group is, the safer we will be. Is there anyone who wants to come with me?"

Nobody talked, the passengers all looked at each other.

Tom stood up.

"I'm going" he said. The three of us looked at him, surprised. He walked forwards the pilot and I followed him.

"What the hell are you doing, Tom?" I whispered.

"We need to get help, Danny needs a doctor. I'm not going to let my friend die"

"He's not dying" I said. Tom gave me a meaningfull look and I felt awfully sick. I stopped.

"He's wound is very deep" he simpy said. Tom looked down and kept walking. I followed him.

"I'm going with you" he opened his mouth to argue "I'm not asking permission. I'm going, Tom"

Tom nodded.

"Anyone else?" Christopher said once we were by his side.

A young, blond girl walked forwards. She looked around my age. The girl standing next to her looked at her in surprised and ran behind her.

"You're going!?" she said to her friend.

"They could use my help, you know that..."

"Vicky, please..."

"I can't just sit and wait..."

The blond one kept walking toward us and her friend sighed and followed her.

"I'm going with you..."

The two girls stood in front of us and the blond one, and taller one, smiled gently for a brief moment. Another dude, a bit older than us, around the pilot's age, joined us. The rest just remained quiet.

"Alright then" the pilot said "Keep warm, if you have any food you'll have to share ir and make is last. Don't go anywhere while we're gone. We'll look for help and come to this exact place" then he turned to us "We're leaving in 10 minutes, bring nothing but clothes and some food, water too. Get ready to walk a lot"

Tom ran back to the plane, looking for clothes, and I got back to Danny, afraid this may be the last time I would see him.

"We'll be back with help, you know that, don't you, Danny?" I said and smiled at him warmly.

"Of course I do, dude" he said and smiled back "Just don't let the wolves eat you" he laughed, I choked.

"Wolves?" I repeated.

"It was a joke, dude"

Yeah, but he may be right about that one...

Suddenly I felt stupid; what the hell was I doing? I knew nothing about the woods, _surviving_ in a place like this, walking in the snow for ours...

'_Oh, dear God_' I thought and then remembered my mum with sorrow. I had to get out of this place and help Danny aswell "_I've got to do this_'


	2. Long Walk

**Forgive me if the chapter is short or not too cool, but yesterday my boyfriend came home crying, saying his father died on Friday night [while I was partying with my friends...] and my mind's somewhere else right now... I hope you like it anyway.**

**Enjoy and review.**

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"Hey, are you alright?" Tom asked one of the girls, the one we knew was called Vicky. She was sitting in the floor with a red backpack next to her, staring into nothingness, lost in thoughts, her eyes sad. She looked up at him surprised, as if he'd woken her up.

"Leave her alone" her friend said, appearing out of the blue with a backpack too. She had a fierce look in her eyes, she must be very protective of her friend. She was pretty, though smaller than Vicky. Her cheeks were red because of the cold but her skin still looked amazing, her dark brown hair fell over her shoulders perfectly, she was gorgeous... Though a bit unfriendly apparently.

"It's alright" Vicky told her, obviously disapproving the tone of her voice. She stood up and put the backpack over her shoulder.

"I can take that if you want" Tom offered gently.

"No, it's fine, you've got yours..." she said. She smiled once, then looked away.

"Aren't you going to offer to take mine?" her friend told me, catching me off guard.

"Err... Do you want me to carry yours?" I said, a bit confused.

"No, it's fine, you should have asked me"

"I _just_ did"

"Just cause_ I_ told you" she turned away rolling her eyes. I stood there completely confused and heard Tom giggled next to me. This girl had serious problems.

Christopher walked toward us, he wasn't wearing the pilot's suit anymore, just relugar clothes, though suitable for this kind of weather.

"I'd like to ask you your names, please" he said "Just to be polite"

"Well, I'm Dougie... Poynter" I said.

"I'm Thomas Fletcher, but it's just Tom really..."

"I'm Vicky Davies" the blond one said.

"Alexandra Wilson" the fierce one said "Alex, is you prefer..."

"I'm Frederick" the last guy said. We waited for just a brief moment but he didn't tell us his surname. He was a big guy with rather darker skin and deep brown eyes. He looked bored.

"Ok, then let's go, follow me" Christopher said "We're going to climb down the mountain

Vicky and Alex followed Christopher closely, Alex seemed to be shadowing every moment Vicky did, as if she was ready to catch Vicky if she stumbled or something. It was weird. Tom and I were a few feet behind the girls and Frederick walked behind us in silence, like a ghost.

I glanced back at Danny and Harry for the last time. I felt weird, anxious. I didn't dare thinking about the possibility of being too late.

"He's going to be fine" Tom said, though it really didn't sound like he completely believed that, but rather like he was trying to convince himself. That just alarmed me a bit more, but I didn't say a thing "We're going to get help and that's it. Besides, people should already be looking for us"

"That's right" Christopher said "I mean, I couldn't get to communicate with anyone at the plane, all the systems are dead, but when they see we never got to the airport, they're going to come and look for us"

"Then why don't we stay with the others?" Alex said. She was obviously only coming because of Vicky, but she seemed uncomfortable with all those big clothes, the trees, the dirt and the snow...

"Well... They may take a bit to realize where we are and that we are lost. It's routine to wait for about 48 hours untill you call a plane missing. Some people may not have 48 hours..."

I tried to deny the fact that he may be talking about my friend.

"48 hours?" Alex repeated "Why would they wait that long? How long do you think we're going to have to walk?"

"I don't know... It may take a while"

"A while..." she repeated with sarcasm. God, she's going to blow my mind with all that whining and complaining about everything. Ok, yeah, the situation was crap, but let's bare with it!

"Don't ever get split" Vicky said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Cause animals will see us as an easier prey if we're alone. The bigger the group is, the better" she explain naturally while I felt suddenly sick.

"Prey? _Us_?" I said.

"Of course... We must taste lovely" she laughed. Where was the fun in _that_? "Anyway, I'm serious. Wolves won't probably hesitate if they catch one of us alone... And it's the same with bears"

"Bears?" I was not going to hide my fear.

"How do you know so much?" Tom asked her.

"I lived in Canada for 6 years, very near the woods and the mountains, so they taught me a lot about surviving in the woods, just in case I got lost or something like that..."

"And why did you come here?"

"That's none of your business" Alex said, giving him a hard look.

"Alex..." Vicky gave her a disapproving look again, but not angry "Remember we talked about controlling your temper? It's fine, _really, _I don't mind people asking..."

Tom and I looked at each other. I would have laughed at the situation, but I didn't want Alex to give me a killing look too and I was sure she would.

"This is going to be a long walk..." Tom whispered.


	3. When The Sun Comes Down

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I needed some time with my friends, things are complicated... Just when I'm about to break up with my boyfriend, his father dies. My life is a twisted fanfic.**

**Enjoy and review.**

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**Tom's POV.**

We'd walked for around 5 hours without stopping even once. Dougie's face was covered with sweat and I glanced at him from time to time to make sure he was ok. I was glad I had started running every single day since last month cause this would have killed me if I hadn't, and I wasn't sure Dougie had any physical preparation for this. He didn't complain, not even once, so I guessed he was alright.

Christopher kept walking in front of us the whole time, I knew he had no idea where the hell we were going, but all we had to do was go down the mountain... Which was huge, by the way.

Alex was having trouble following Vicky, who seemed confortable and didn't look tired at all. I noticed Vicky had to slow down a bit sometimes, but never let her friend notice. I was just glad Alex had stopped complaining three hours ago, but she only did so cause she had no more breath left for talking and walking at the same time.

Frederick was always quiet, just mentioned something about the trees twice and nothing else. If this had been a horror movie, he would have been the psycho killer for sure.

I imagined the fans waiting for us, we were supposed to arrive today. Would they realize there was something horrible wrong? Would they just think we were assholes that like arriving late? I hoped they told the police... Perhaps Danny's life depended on that. I'd seen his wound, it was deep and it looked pretty bad. Maybe Harry had found a doctor after all between all those passengers and Danny had already recieved some kind of help. I told Harry not to tell Danny how bad his injury was, I didn't want him to freak out. He had the right to know, but I had the right not to tell him. What was I supposed to tell him, anyway? 'Oh, it looks bad, I think you may die'? No, I wasn't going to do that. I couldn't.

"Hey, there's a cave there" Vicky announced "Let's stop"

"No, let's go on" Frederick said.

"It's going to be dark very soon, we won't find another place later" she said.

We all stopped and looked at each other. I had the feeling neither Alex or Dougie were going to argue with her, they both were secretly dying to stop hours ago. I wanted to go on, I would run if I had to, but my legs were feeling weird.

"I think she's right" Christopher said.

"Absolutely" Dougie said.

"Tom?" Christopher looked at me. Were we voting or what?

"Let's stop" I said. I didn't want Dougie to die in the middle of the way, let's not push him or my legs...

Frederick just nodded. It seemed like he didn't care much wheter we went on or not. He was a weird dude.

We walked towards a dark and small cave, but at least there wasn't snow inside it.

"I am so going to take a long shower when we get out of here" Alex mumbled looking with disgust at absolutely everything that sorrounded her. I couldn't really blame her, there was a horrible smell here.

"Let's sleep here and leave early. Bears usually come and live in places like this one" Vicky said.

Dougie immediately stopped walking and looked at her, panic in his eyes.

"No way we're staying here then" he said.

"Well, you can sleep outside with the wolves" Frederick said.

Doug hurried to get inside and sat against the rocks of the cave. He sighed and rested his head against his backpack. I opened mine and took two big jackets out.

"It's going to be colder at night, take this, dude" I told him.

"Thanks" he mumbled.

"I need to go to the bathroom" I heard Alex mumbled to Vicky.

"Well, you can choose several trees..."

"I'm serious, Vicky!"

"So am I, sorry..."

Alex sighed and with her cheeks completely red, she walked outside the cave.

Vicky watched her leave and then, just when she was out of sight, she pulled up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal a long cut in her arm. She examined it closely and I got closer to her.

"Are you pain? Can I help you?" I asked her as I knelt down next to her.

"No, it's ok. I'm only afraid it could get infected."

"Just don't let it her dirty and I think you'll be fine"

"Yeah, I think so too" she smiled at me "Hey, please don't tell Alex. She will freak out and probably drag me back to the others"

I laughed and so did she "She's very protective of you, it's obvious. As if you could break into pieces in any moment"

"I know, she just worries to much"

"Why?"

She pulled down her sleeve and put a jacket over her. She didn't look at me.

"Well, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to" I said.

"I rather not" she smiled gently.

In that moment, Alex stepped into the cave again with an extremely disgusted look on her face. She looked at me and closed her eyes a little bit. Oh, I was lucky looks couldn't kill.

"Is there a problem, Tom?" she said.

"No, not at all" I said politely. Well, she hated me but I wasn't going to be rude with a woman.

"Hey, we should all sleep close to each other" Frederick said out of the blue. We all turned to look at him.

"Yeah, you wish" Alex said as she crossed her arms over her chest. Dougie held back a smile.

"I'm serious. We'll be warmer like that. Once the sun's completely gone, it will be even colder. Besides, who said I wanted to sleep next to _you_?"

She rolled her eyes and sat next to Vicky.

"It actually makes sense" Vicky said "You can sit next to me if you want, Tom"

Alex looked at her in desbilief and then back at me. Her eyes said it all: you touch her, I kill you. Yeah, I swear to God I could read it on her eyes.

"Sure" I smiled at Vicky and sat next to her, in her left side, the nearest to the cave.

Dougie was still sitting in the floor, facing us, in the other side of the cave.

Christopher sat next to Tom and Frederick sat next to him. They all had more clothes on, ready to go to sleep. I was so tired I wasn't even hungry. I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep. Perhaps it was the same with the rest of them.

"Well, are you coming or not?" Alex told Dougie with annoyance. He sighed; he obviously didn't want to sit next to her. Doug finally stood up and sat next to her, but didn't even look up at her.

There was barely any more light, it was our time to sleep and hope that tomorrow we would get lucky and find someone.

Vicky 's head softly fell over my shoulder, she was already dreaming, lucky her. I closed my eyes and tried to find a comfortable spot against the rocks. I heard Dougie sigh one last time... I knew what he was thinking; this was going to be a looong night.


	4. Embrace

**Hey, girls, just wanted to say thanks for all the support, not only with the reviews but with the messy stuff that are happening to me. So, yeah, thanks.**

**Enjoy and review.**

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**Tom's POV.**

When I woke up, it took me a while to realize that yesterday hadn't been a very vivid dream. I just sighed and looked around the small, dirty cave. The spot where Vicky should have been was empty and Frederick was also gone. Christopher was sitting in the edge of the cave, peacefully eating a piece of bread. Alexandra was resting her head in Doug' shoulder, still sleeping, and he was resting his head over hers. She actually looked sweet when she didn't complain, I liked her a lot more when she was sleeping.

But, unfortunately, she woke up just seconds after I did. When she realized where her head was, she raised it in annoyance and woke up Dougie. He looked around confused and then at her with annoyance too. He was about to complain but Alex panicked before he could say a thing.

"Where's Vicky!?" she said. She stood up in a blink and stumbled. I caught her quickly.

"Calm down" Christopher said "They went to bring water"

She sighed impatiently and sat in the floor again, but not next to Dougie.

"What time is it?" Dougie asked. He sounded so tired.

"Around 7 am" Christopher said.

"Oh, dear God..." Dougie rested his head against the rocks again.

"No, no, don't do that. Sorry, mate, but no more sleeping" Christopher offered him his hand and helped him to stand up. I stood next to Dougie, rather close to him, not sure how long his eyes could stay opened without some kind of distraction. Then our leader walked towards Alex and offered her his hand too, which she took without complaining and stood up slowly. She sighed "We're leaving as soon as Vicky and Rick come back"

"Can't we sleep just a little bit more?" Alex asked in a very tired voice.

"Agree" Dougie said.

"Sorry but we can't, we've got to keep going" Chris encouraged her with a tiny smile and turned away.

Just five minutes later Vicky and Frederick came back with one canteen in each hand. They seemed perfectly fine, as if they had slept for hours and hours in the most comfortable bed ever. I noticed Alex held back her urge to run to Vicky and waited for her patiently in her spot.

"Why didn't you wake me up? I could have helped you" Alex said.

Vicky smiled warmly at her concern. Don't ask me how the hell could she stand that all the time _and_ still be able to smile "You would have complained 'cause it was too early"

"No, I wouldn't"

"Yeah, you would"

"Well, you don't know that"

"Yeah, she does..." Dougie mumbled and we both giggled.

"Ok, let's go" Chris said.

We all grabbed our backpacks and walked out of the cave. God, it was going to be a really long day, just as yesterday. I hoped that, at least, we had it easy today; no trouble with food, complains, no rain, no more snow, no wild animals...

"We should be quiet and fast; I saw a couple of wolf tracks down there in the river" Vicky said just as we started walking.

Dougie and I looked at each other, both alarmed.

"What!?" Alex said, obviously freaking out, and looked all around her as if she would find a wolf.

"Well, I think you didnt understand the part in which I said '_we should be quiet_'" Vicky said.

"How do you know it was a wolf?" I asked "It could have been a fox, o coyote"

"There aren't coyotes here" Vicky said, almost laughing. Ok, I obviously said something stupid "And it was as big as my hand, it definitely belonged to a wolf"

"Aren't they going to... Well, you know,_ eat_ us?" Dougie said. I was just about to laugh when Vicky spoke.

"Not if we're carefull"

"What? I thought that only happened in the movies" I said.

"No, dumbass. We're meat, they eat meat. They'll try if they get a chance."

Alex stopped walking in that moment, her eyes full of tears.

"What are you doing?" Rick said "Let's go"

"I've got a little brother! My mum's waiting for me in England! I'm only 19 years old! I don't want a freaking wolf to eat me!" she said, tears rolling down her eyes.

Dougie was the closest to her and, to my surprised, he hugged her like he would have hugged any other friend. And, to my surprise _again_, she let him. She put her arms around him too and burried her face in his chest. Well, I knew Dougie couldn't stand seeing a woman cry but I thought Alex would kick his butt as soon as he touched her.

"Nothing's going to eat you" he comforted her "We won't let them"

Vicky stepped forwards and Dougie turned away from Alex. Vicky put her arms around her friend and comforted her like a mum does with her child. They stayed like that for around 5 minutes, the rest just turned around and gave them some privacy.

"You hugged her" I teased him.

He rolled his eyes "Dude, she was crying, don't be silly"

"She's your type"

"She so _isn't_ my type! She hates everything but Vicky"

"Well, she may hate love, but she's going to love someone someday" I smiled at him and he rolled his eyes again.

"Ok, let's go" Vicky said.

"Let's just hope wolves don't find us..." I mumbled.


	5. A Decent Man

**Enjoy and review.**

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**Dougie's POV.**

We stopped at 2 in the afternoon to eat. Our lunch was basicly bread... And not too much, cause we didn't know how much we would need and wouldn't want to run out of food. We were lucky we'd found it in the place. Vicky actually managed to find some tiny fruits that grew in trees -and weren't poisonous- but it wasn't much and I was still hungry by the time we started walking again. Everything looked pretty much the same to me, though there wasn't much to see really -just trees and trees everywhere for miles and miles, but both Rick, Chris and Vicky seemed to think we weren't just walking in circles like I did. Neither Tom, Alexandra or I knew where the hell we were doing. Apparently Rick had some kind of training, like Vicky, and I guessed Chris just had to look confident as the leader of the group so someone like me wouldn't go nuts.

At around 6.30 we had to stop. Alex had been complaining about something in her left foot for around an hour and Christopher was going to explode if she said one more thing about it, but she really seemed in pain, so we stopped. She sat in a rock and took off her shoes. Her foot was red and had loads of blisters. She held back her tears the whole time while Vicky held her hand and Tom cleaned the wounds and covered them with bandages.

"It's probably because of the shoes" Rick told her.

"We can't go on" I said "She can't walk like this"

"She will have to keep walking" Christopher said.

"At least let her rest today" Vicky complained "It's getting dark anyway, we should find somewhere to sleep"

"There's nothing around here" Rick said.

"Ok, I've got an idea" Tom said "You girls stay here, we'll walk a little bit more and see if we find some cave or something. Once we found it, we come back for you"

"No, it's dangerous," Vicky said "it's getting dark early, there are wild animals everywhere and the smaller the group is, the more chances of being attacked we have... And besides you probably won't even be able to find us again. We can _not_ split"

"Then I'll carry her" I said. I didn't like the idea at all, but what else could we do? She would hurt her foor even more if she kept walking yet we couldn't stop here either, in the middle of the woods. Besides, I couldn't stand seeing her like that, no matter how unfriendly she was or how much she could complain.

"You don't have to do that" Alex mumbled.

I sighed. She would convince me too easily, so I walked towards her and helped her to get in my back. She didn't weight much but my legs -my whole body actually- were tired and so her body felt so heavy over my back.

"You carry her 15 minutes then I'll carry her" Tom told me.

"Ok..." I said. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to carry her, so that was a perfect idea. After my 15 minutes, Tom carried her for that period of time too. Then Chris carried her, then Rick, then me again, until we found a kind of a cave, a lot smaller. Only three of us fitted there.

I layed Alexandra on the ground carefully and softly, inside the tiny cave which is more kind of a hole, and Vicky hurried to put two thick jackets over her. She was kind of already falling asleep, it had been a long day.

"Hey, don't fall asleep, you've got to eat something, darling" Vicky said to her in a sweet voice, a voice full of love.

"I'm tired, Vi" she said and closed her eyes.

"You have to eat, Alex, you need energy for tomorrow" Vicky said.

"What I need is a pillow" Alex sighed and I smiled.

"Go get her dinner, I'll keep her awake" I told her.

Vicky hesitated; obviously she didn't trust me enough to leave me alone with Alex, not cause I was a psycho but because the male population of the world didn't seem to be Alex's best friend, if you know what I mean.

"Ok, I'll be right back" she told me.

"Thanks for carrying me" Alex mumbled as she opened her eyes. I wondered if her cheeks were red just because of the cool "You didn't have to do that..."

"Yes, I did" I sighed and sat next to her "I can't stand seeing a woman cry"

"Why not?"

I hesitated, but then thought '_what the hell, I may probably die here, I've got nothing to lose..._'

"My dad left my family when I was a teenager" I said, not looking at her in the eyes "and I had to see both my mum and sister cry for too long. I just can't take it anymore"

To my surprise, her very cold hand caught mine. I looked up at her; she wasn't so horrible when she wanted to be nice.

"I never met my dad" she said "He left mum when she was pregnant. Then I had to watch her go out with a endless number os assholes..."

"I'm sorry... But you shouldn't hate men because of them, you know?"

Then I knew I'd messed up, I shouldn't have said that. That fierce look was back in her eyes inmediately.

"I can do whatever I want. You can't tell me what to do or think just because you are all rich and famous. I know who you are, _Poynter_"

"What the hell does that have to do with our parents?" now I did feel angry.

"Nothing, forget about it. There's only one man in the whole worth that was decent and he's dead."

"I'm decent! You don't even know me"

"And I don't want to know you either"

I looked at her in debilief. Oh, I was wrong, she seriously was a _bitch_.

"Whatever..." I mumbled and walked away.


	6. Ice

**Enjoy and review.**

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**Dougie's POV.**

That night was colder. Chris, Alex and Vicky slept in the tiny cave while Tom, Rick and I had to sleep outside, with the wind and the snow. L.o.v.e.l.y. I woke up feeling horrible, not only because my whole body was already starting to feel tired, but because I had fever. I didn't say a thing about it, there was nothing I could do anyway. I wondered if my fever could be dangerous under our circumstances, but I put that thought in the back of my mind; the last thing I needed was to have to worry about something else.

It was snowing when we woke up, that was not helpful at all. I had snow over my hair. Tom and Vicky had been the first to woke up and surprisingly found big fruits. I truly gave a damn if they were venomous, I was hungry and wanted to eat something different from _bread_. Tom seemed to get on well with Vicky, when they came with the fruits, they were smiling. I wondered how that was possible; we were on hell. But well, Vicky was friendly, a _normal_ person -not like_ someone else_ I met-, though her eyes were sad the whole time.

Around 8am, we were walking again. I tried not to look like a zombie, but Tom's eyes missed nothing.

"Are you ok, dude?" he asked me.

I simple nodded, which was a mistake, it made my head hurt even more.

Today's walk was very slow. More snow kept falling and my feets were burried in the snow. It made us get tired easier and faster, and our feet soon started feeling weird. It was a nightmare. We'd walked for hours until we found a big frozen lake. We decided not to cross it and had to go back and take another way. We'd lost hours and hours of walking. I started to feel truly dizzy and breathing became a problem. Tom didn't say anything, but he kept glaring at me from to time and I knew he knew there was something wrong.

"We've got to do something" Rick said "It's only 2 pm and I already feel like we do at 8 pm. Walking like this, with the snow, is killling us"

"What do you have in mind?" Chris said.

"Well, let's go back and cross the river. It was the easier and faster way." Rick said.

"We don't know how long it's been frozen" Alex argued "It could be dangerous"

"It could be also dangerous for your foot if we keep walking in the snow" Rick said pointing at the snow... Well, actually her foot that was hidden somewhere under the snow.

"Let's give it a try" Chris said.

I sighed; dammit.

We went all the way back to the stupid frozen river. What a waste of time, jeez! I was feeling worse by the minute, I think I was shacking, and not only because I felt like I was freezing. The bad mood of the ones sorrounding me wasn't helping either. Alex didn't even look at me, she was probably pretending I did not existed. It was a shame she was being a complete _bitch_ again, but I felt like a fool for having believed she acutally knew how to be a nice person. Around three hours later we were there again.

We all stopped at the edge of the river.

"Let's not hurry" Vicky said "It doesn't look too safe. Let's go one by one"

"I'll go first... I just want to sit down for a moment" Alex said and walked forwards. The river was about two streets long. She walked quickly but didn't run, always staring down at the ice with fear.

"Come on, Alex, you're almost there" Vicky shouted when she looked back in fear.

She finally got to the other side and sat down in the snow looking very tired.

"I'll go next" I mumbled. I did too want to sit down so badly.

I walked forwards alone and feeling like my body suddenly waited so much more. I kept my eyes on Alex the whole time, thiking I could do this, just some more meters...

... But when I was only meters away from her, I just felt, my legs failed, my head hurt, my body couldn't resist anymre.

"Dougie!" I heard Tom shouted. Alex reached me in a second.

"No, Tom, come back!" Vicky shouted too.

"The ice!" Alex cried desperately as she grabbed my arm and pushed me off the ice "Victoria, the ice!"

I turned my head to watched what was going on behind me. Tom was running toward us, Vicky was behind ice was breaking behind them into a straight line towards them. I tried to get up and Alex used all the energy she had left to pulled me up.

"Move!" she shouted at all of us.

We managed to reach the trees, safe off the river, but the ice broke, I didn't see it but heard it, and Alex shouted again.

"Vicky!" she launched herself towards the river, but, somehow, I was faster and caught her arm.

"No, don't go!" I said.

The ice under Vicky broke and suddenly she was out of sight. Tom hesitated for a moment, then ran back to the broken ice were she'd disappeared and threw himself into the water.

"Tom, no!" I shouted so hard that it hurt my throat.

Then nothing. Silence. Fear. Tears.


	7. Share The Warmth

**Hey, girl, I hope you all are doing great. Just wanted to say thanks for all the reviews and the support, I know I've done it a thousand times but I just feel it's never enough, life is still wild and crazy over here but I'm trying to catch up with it and write new chapters for you as soon as I can.**

**I'm writing a bit about Harry and Danny at the end, it's shinespire's idea.** **She suggested that and I thought it was a good idea.**

**Enjoy and review.**

* * *

**Dougie's POV.**

The fever, the tiredness, the pain in my body... Nothing seemed to matter or even felt real in that moment. Alex was frozen in the edge of the frozen fiver, staring at the spot where our friends has disappeared around a minute ago, my hand still closed around her arm, keeping her from doing something stupid. Chris and Rick were frozen in the other side of the river, probably not knowing wheter if they should jump into the water aswell and try to rescue them or just go on and try to cross the river themselves.

"We've got to do something!" Alex shouted at me desperately, tears fastly running down her cheeks "Let's break the ice so they can come out! We can't just sit here!"

"The ice may break again" I said, but I stood up. I definitely couldn't just sit here knowing that my best friend was drowning somewhere under the frozen surface of the river. I didn't even want to imagine how cold the water had to be. Perhaps they were _already_ dead, but at least I had to _try_.

"She's my best friend!" she yelled at me "Please, dammit!"

I quickly tried to think of something. There was a possibility the current could have moved them and we had to break the ice again so they could come out. I looked around me and grabed a thick branch, then took Alex's hand and ran with her towards the hole in the surface.

"The current's heading left" I told her quickly "Run and try to see them through the ice, then call me and we'll break it so they can come out. If the ice starts breaking again, I want you to promise me you'll her off the river"

"I promise" she said quickly.

"Ok. I'll take the right edge, you take the left one"

We both started running, not caring about Rick and Chris that were shouting at us, telling us to get away from the river, or the fear for the fact that the ice could break again and take _us_ down. My head was a mess and I was sure it couldn't ever hurt more like it did now, it'd be impossible. My body was about to collapse again, when Alex shouted my name. She pointed at the ice, somewhere, but I didn't see a thing. I ran towards her and saw two blurry dark things under the water, hitting the ice from under it. I burried the branch as much strength as I could and as deep as possible just a meter away from them, were the current was supposed to take them.

Alex knelt down on the little hole I'd made and threw away pieces of ice, making the whole bigger. I helped her and then put my hands in the water to reach for Tom. It was so cold that I had to fight back my natural urge to put it away. Tom took my hand just a second after, but pushed Vicky up from under the water. Alex hurried to help her and put her arms around her.

"Oh, God, Vicky!" Alex said under her breath.

"Take her off the ice, it's too much weight" I shouted at her as I tried to help Tom out the water. Tom was shacking madly and he couldn't seem to be able to stop "Come on, dude, let's go"

By an hour later, we'd found a cave big enough for everybody, Chris and Rick has crossed the river running and luckyly nothing happened to _them_. Tom and Vicky had all the extra-clothes we all had on but were still shacking a bit. I was afraid they could get ill...

But I was sick myself and I could not hide it anymore. I was in a corner of the cave, all curled up, feeling so damn bad. Alex and her fierce temper had forced both Rick and Chris to sit their asses down in the cave and stop talking about going on. My body couldn't go on anymore, not today, and both Vicky and Tom agreed in this.

They were sitting next to each other, sleeping, tired like we all were. I was glad my bestfriend was alive, but I really need to be warmer.

Alex sat next to me, to my surprise, and put her arms around me.

"You're trembling" she mumbled. Was that _worry_ in her voice? No, it's couldn't be "and you're burning like hell"

"Well, _this_ is hell"

"Agree..." she sighed and I just thought '_fuck it all_' and rested my head against her neck. Hey, I was tired and that was far more comfortable that the rocks! _And_ warmer "I'm only doing this cause we'll be warmer together, you know? And you don't look good at all"

"Sure..." I mumbled, not really caring about it anymore, I just wanted to feel better and sleep.

A minute of silence passed.

"Thanks, Dougie" she mumbled again then.

"For what?"

"For helping me today"

"It was my bestfriend out there too"

"_Right_... Then sorry for being so... So _me_, the other day. I have a really bad temper, you see?"

"I _did_ notice that myself, you know?" I smiled, I think she did too but I didn't see her face.

"Take some rest now, Poynter" she said and rested her cheek against my hair "I'll be right here if you need me"

* * *

**Harry's POV.**

People was anxious the whole time, waiting for news or a change that never arrived. Danny wasn't the only one who had injuries, but he was the only one I knew and the only one who was my friend. His skin was turning into a way-too-pale color, it was alarming, his lips were losing color aswell, and every day he seemed to be more and more tired, though he was laying in the ground over loads and loads of jackets and clothes the whole time. I was by his side the whole day, anxiously waiting for _anything_, and yet I wanted nothing to happen, I didn't want things to change, I didn't want him to get worse.

The sun was setting in the sky and another dark, cold night begun. I always wondered if Danny would get through another night, it was a horrible feeling and you didn't ever get use to it. It didn't seem just a very few days since we'd been here, it seemed such a long time.

"I wonder how Tom, Dougie and the rest are doing" Danny said in a low voice.

"I'm sure they're perfectly fine" I smiled at him and I rested my head against a tree. Of course I did not believe my own words, but what else could I do but hope they _really_ were just fine? I would go insane if I started thinking about all the things that could go wrong while they tried to get help. I laughed and hoped it sounded convincing "I'm sure they're flirting with those girls we saw"

"That sounds like us" he laughed but inmediately cried out in pain; even laughing hurt him now. I looked at him, worried, and he noticed "It's alright, I'm alright, really..."

"Yeah, of course, dude, it's only a little cut" I felt so bad around lying, but I couldn't tell him the truth either, I couldn't let him know how bad his situation was, though perhaps he already knew it, he wasn't stupid "Just take some rest, I'm sure they'll get help soon" I said. Danny just kind of nodded and closed his eyes. I closed mine too and hoped that tomorrow Danny's eyes would be open again.


	8. Date

**So sorry for the delay, girls, I have less than three weeks left of holidays and I'm trying to have as much fun as I can _while_ I can.  
**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Do you know the song 'Vertigo' by Anya Marina? She has some really cool songs like 'All The Same To Me' o 'Two Left Feet', check it out.  
**

* * *

**Vicky's POV.**

Tom was singing a soft melody, the only thing that we could actually hear apart from the birds. It was very peacefull, nothing like back home in London. I mean, I _love_ London, my home, my friends, the city, my family, everything there, but I also loved it here... Even under these weird and complicated circumstances. And, besides, I liked the people here... Specially _one_.

"What are we looking for, again?" Tom asked for the third time. I smiled.

"Blueberries" I said.

"I didn't know there were blueberries here"

"I saw some the other day, they must be somewhere around here aswell..." I looked around us "They grow un bushes"

"Are you sure? It's winter"

"I know, but they still grow. They taste a lot better in a summer though"

"Well, we can come back on Summer and see what we're missing" he smiled at me and I looked away so he wouldn't see me blushing.

"I always come here" I said, and what anything close to a smile disappeared. He noticed and looked at me with curiosity.

"I'm sorry, did I say something that upset you?"

"No, it's fine..." I smiled once at him then looked away again.

"Are those blueberries?" he asked and pointed to a group of big bushes.

"Yes, you found them"

I walked a bit faster and reached the biggest bush. I grabbed one of the blueberries and put it on the palm of my hand.

"Here, taste it" I said. He grabbed it and put it in his mouth. It didn't look like he loved it, but at least he didn't hate it either.

"Were you married?" he suddenly asked. I looked at him surprised and all of the sudden my eyes were full of tears "I'm sorry, I just saw your ring finger is paler, it's got the mark of a ring... I shouldn't have said anything, I'm very sorry"

He looked away and it took me a minute to pull myself together. When I was sure my voice wouldn't sound as sad as I was feeling right then, I spoke.

"It's ok, it's just hard for me to talk about it" I said.

"Can I ask what was his name?" Tom asked a bit shyly, without looking at me, as he put loads and loads of blueberries in his backpack.

"Jason" I said and saying his name out loud seemed to hurt me physically.

"When did he..."

"Die?" I finished for him, knowing that he wouldn't dare to ask "Two years ago. I'm older than Alex, I'm 21. I got married young cause we knew he was dying... It was his last wish"

"I'm very sorry, Vicky"

"So am I... He died here, on our honeymoon. Jason was far too sick, but he insisted on coming. I come here every 6 months to visit him, Alex always comes with me, she never takes her eyes off me. He was the only man she ever liked, the only one she thought was decent... And the only one I ever loved."

"I'll go with you if you want" Tom said. I looked at him confused.

"Why would you do that?"

"Well, he must have been a really good guy if _you_ fell in love with him" he smiled at me a little bit and I truly felt even more confused. What was_ that_ supposed to mean?

* * *

**Doug's POV**

Alex was still sleeping with her head against mine when I woke up, breathing evenly.. I was curled up next to her, she still had her arms closed around me, it felt good, warm and comfortable. I felt a bit better, though a bit dizzy for some reason. Both Vicky and Tom were gone, Christopher was sleeping too and Rick was just sitting in the entrance of the cave. He waved at me when he saw me wake up.

"Don't wake up the beast" he laughed as he looked at Alex. I smiled too. Well, Alex was a bit crazy to be honest, but at least I knew she wasn't completely _evil_.

I moved very slowly and put my arms around her, softly resting her head on my chest. She seemed so small and cute like this. I didn't think I'd noticed how really pretty she was until she was finally in peace and quiet.

She opened one eye and I blushed when she saw me staring at her, my face must have been funny because she smiled.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You were smiling" she said.

"Oh, really?" I looked up so she couldn't see me blushing _again_. Her body shook a little bit in my chest when she giggled.

"Vicky's gone again" she said, but she didn't freak out like the last time "... With Tom... _Again_"

"What, do you think there's something between them?" I asked.

"I don't know... She doesn't date"

"Do _you_ date?" I didn't dare looking down at her and I could have sworn I felt her smile.

"Oh, that's none of your business, is it, Poynter?"

"I'm just curious. You hate everyone"

"I don't hate _everyone_. I don't hate _you_, for example. And I owe you one for helping me yesterday anyway"

"Hum, you owe me? That's interesting. I'll keep that in mind"

She giggled again, it was a happy sound, nothing like I'd heard these last few days. She pulled me closer to her and buried her face on my chest.

From the entrance of the cave, Rick rolled his eyes and smiled.


	9. Smile

**I am so very sorry for the delay, I _am_! But I'm trying to enjoy my few last weeks of holidays, school's starting soon, it's such a sad thing... (sigh) Oh, and I'm on facebook now also! :D (my friends kind of forced me to make an account there) Add me if you want, I'm Gri Calcagno.  
**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Thanks for all the reviews so far :) I love reading them!  
**

* * *

**Vicky's POV.**

By the time we got back to the others, it was 10 am. We were late. I was rather surprised neither Tom or myself had got ill after falling into the water yesterday. We must have been trembling for hours, but it seems that sharing the warmth last night had helped. It was rather weird feeling close to Tom, someone I'd met just days ago. Perhaps it was because we all kind of secretly thought there was a chance we may die here, so we didn't really care about anything anymore. Jason would have loved to see me next to a man again, but even after two years, I wasn't sure that could be possible, my love for him was still there and I wanted nothing or no one to change that.

Tom sang the whole way. We actually discovered we had a rather similar taste of music, which was weird cause peope never likes my music, but Tom was... _Different_. I wouldn't know how to explain it, sometimes you simply know when someone's _different_, a bit _special_, it always happens... It happened to me, with Jason. And now with Tom. That scared me... But it was easy for me to be around him, it was easy to be careless, even a bit _happy_, and I was also to let go of that. Only God -and perhaps Alex- knew how long it'd been since I'd been happy, _really_ happy.

When we got to the rest, both Tom and I stopped in surprised right in the entrance of the cave. We must had been looking at the same thing and surprised by what we were watching; Alex in Dougie's arms, both sleeping. I smiled from ear to ear for the first time in 2 years.

"Oh, my God..." I mumbled.

"Agree" Tom said.

"How the hell did that happen?" I asked.

"There's always someone who knows how to control monsters" Frederick said.

"Hey, she's not a monster..." I said and both Tom and Rick stared at me with their eyebrows raised "Well, not _always_"

Tom smiled. He looked cute when he smiled, I hadn't noticed that before.

"Well, it's time to wake them up anyway" Rick said and stood up "It's late, we are getting lazy" he first reached Christopher and woke him up. Dougie woke up with only the sound of our voices and I think he blushed when he noticed us staring at them. He shook Alex a little bit and she opened her eyes.

"It's breakfast time, Alex" he told her as he smiled. I couldn't stop smiling, which was unsual but great. I was starting to feel glad the plane had crushed... Well, _kind of_ at least.

"Let me guess, bread again?" she said and sighed as he offered her his hand and helped her to stand up.

"No, we found loads and loads of blueberries" Tom said.

"We can eat while we walk then" Chris said "It's late, we shouldn't have slept so much. Get yout stuff ready and let's go"

Alex sighed again and she took off one of her jackets and put it on her backpack. Dougie walked outside and I made my way to my best friend.

"So, you and Dougie, huh?" I said as I tried my best not to smile anymore.

She stared at me for a brief moment with her eyebrows raised.

"Oh, shut up" she simply said.

"That's not a '_no_'"

"Well, _you_ and Tom have been disappearing a lot lately"

"You are _so_ avoiding the subject!" ok, I couldn't help it, I smiled. Alex kept glancing at me, I suspected the reason was that she hadn't seen me smile_ honestly_ for a long time, this had to be a surprise for her, the one thing she'd been waiting for so long.

"There's no 'subject', Vi, he was ill and I thought we would be warmer together"

"Yeah, sure, then you ended up in his arms"

"It's better than the rocks!"

"Girls, let's go!" Chris called from outside.

"You'd better keep your mouth shut" she whispered to me.

"Why? I thought there was nothing to talk about" I held back another big smile.

Alex rolled her eyes and pretended to be offended. I giggled, the sound was weird and unknown for me. She looked back at me and smiled, happy to hear _me_ happy again, or _kind of_. She took my hand and looked down, blushing.

"I'm glad you're back" she mumbled and looked at me carefully, as if her words would take me back to the sorrow.

"I only need time" I told her.

She nodded.

"Dougie's looking at you" I whispered to her year. She looked up and then rolled her eyes.

"No, he's not" she said as she stared at his back, Tom and Dougie were walking in front of us, talking in whispers aswell.

"Oh, but you looked up!" I said.

"Will you please stop that, Vicky?"

"No, it's way too much fun"

"Well... At least you're smiling again... Because of Tom, perhaps?" she smiled and I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous"

"I'm in the middle of nowhere, having blueberries for breakfast... I can do and say whatever I want. Besides, Tom had just said your name"

I looked at her and blushed.

"You're so busted" she smiled "I know that look in your eyes, you all stupid with butterflies in your belly... Thank God the damn plane crushed"


	10. Plan

**Again, girls, sorry for the delay.  
**

**Enjoy and review.**

* * *

**Alex****'s POV.**

"Can I talk to you for one second?"

"Hum, sure" Dougie said.

"In private," I looked briefly at Tom "if you don't mind, Tom"

"Oh, no, it's find, I'll just... Yeah" he turned away and walked towards Rick.

We'd stopped for only five minutes, Vicky needed to '_go to the bathroom_' (which was either a tree or a bush. _Lovely_) and I took my opportunity to talk to Dougie. I'd been thinking lately that perhaps this was the right time to do something about Vicky's situation, about her non-stopping sorrow. Jason had been kind of the only male-friend I'd ever had, he was sweet with Vicky and was a very good person too, but life had others plans for him. No matter how much time you have, you can never get prepared to_ bury_ a friend, but I managed to stay strong because Vicky needed me and because I'd promised Jason I would... I'd also promised I wouldn't let Vicky be alone for the rest of her life. It was a promise I did not want to keep, I couldn't imagine Vicky with anybody else, but now I really was afraid she would_ really_ end up alone for the rest of her life, consumed by the memories of her lost love. I couldn't let her do that, no matter how much I desliked men...

... And now Tom appeared in our lifes. He was successful, a bit clever it seemed, nice enough, the type of guy Vicky likes physically, he was a musician, which she loved... And he made her smile. All we ever want as friends is to see our friends smile. Isn't_ that_ friendship? And if she was happy, then so was I. I just had to make sure Tom felt the same thing and who knew how much time together we all had left, perhaps we would die, perhaps somebody would find us, but eventually, and not in a very long time, we would all get separated. I had to make sure that once we got out of here and went back to our lifes in England, he would not forget her.

"What's up?" Dougie asked once we'd walked some meters away from the others.

"I kind of need you to help me with something" I said in a hurry, Vicky would be back in any moment and I, of course, would go back to her side, as I always did.

"Just say it, Alex" he didn't look impatient but curious. Good, I had his attention.

"I want Tom to fall in love with Vicky... And, well, the same with Vicky"

"Oh, ok"

"_Ok_? That's it? I thought you were going to say something like '_you can't make people fall in love_' or '_that's stupid_'"

"First of all, you suck at imitating" he smiled and I rolled my eyes "and secondly, jumping into a fountain at night all dressed up like a caveman is stupid, not _that_"

"You did that?"

"Yeah, for a video"

"That's _really_ stupid" I laughed at him.

He rolled his eyes "Shall we go on?"

"Sure, caveman. My plan is to make them spend more time together, like those walks they sometimes take or sleeping close to each other. We don't have a lot to work with here, so we've got to do it _now_, we don't even know how much time we've got"

"Well, we could pretend to like each other"

I raised and eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest "What does that have to do with Vicky and Tom, Poynter?"

"If _they_ think _we_ like each other, then _they_ will try to leave _us_ alone, which probably means they will end up walking together and all the stuff you mentioned.

I thought about it for a moment; yeah, it made sense to me.

"Besides, I think Tom already likes her" Dougie said and smiled "He talked to me about her. He doesn't care too much about women, he's all about music, you know? So it surprised me... Then I realized perhaps he liked her. Do you think she likes him?"

"I don't know. I mean, she's smiling and she hadn't in a while, _something_'s making her happy and I want to keep it that way."

"Hey, you've got something in your hair" he took a few steps closer and took some branches from my hair then threw them away to the ground. He put a lock of my hair behind my ear and smiled. I just stared at him, _really_ staring at him for the first time; he was kind of gorgeous... _Beautiful_, you may say. I'd never noticed how lovely his blue eyes were, kind, warm, though you could almost see stupidity behind them. I didn't mind, he was funnier that way.

"Hey, guys, we should-" Vicky said as she walked closer and stopped when she saw me and Dougie standing so close to each other, kind of away from the rest. I blushed and Dougie put his hands behind his back, blushing too.

"You were saying?" Tom said, obviously trying to hold back a smile.

"Hum... I... Oh, right" Vicky looked away, smiling. I think I blushed even more, this is so stupid "I found some wolf tracks again, they can be close, so we should better get going."

"Ok, everyone, grab you backpacks and let's go" Chris said and stood up.

Dougie turned to me "Look, just from time to time we'll walk together and leave them alone, alright?"

"Ok..." I hesitated "But it doesn't meant anything"

"What do you mean?"

"I do _not_ like you, alright, Poynter?"

"You're life Lucifer's wife, I do not like _you_ either... You complain to much"

"Hey, I do _not_ complain too much!"

"Here you go again..." we both rolled our eyes and joined the group.

Let the '_fun_' begin.


	11. Warmer Nights

**Sorry for the delay, the romance in my life is killing me, I cried my heart out talking on the phone with my bestfriend last night, can't take this anymore... Girls, don't you ever fall in love with_ two_ boys; it's not something smart to do, not funny and not easy at all.**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Amy: your reviews are hilarious haha thanks.  
**

* * *

**Alex****'s POV.**

I could tell there was something wrong, Vicky was nervous, always looking around us, but not life before, not in peace. I didn't ask, I wasn't sure I wanted to know, though I was a bit concern that she was still worried about the wolves. Was that something we should really worry about? I just couldn't picture a bunch of wolves trying to, well,_ eat _us, it was _way _too wild.

Around eight the forest reminded me of a horrible horror movie. My feet hurt, it was slightly snowing, I was tired and scared and I was really hungry. My hands were on my pockets not only because they were cold but because I had the creepy feeling that something was going to touch them or something...

Suddenly something touched my hair and I screamed at the top of my lungs, as loudly as I possibly could. Vicky's hand was over my mouth only a second later, her face alarmed.

"Shut up!" she hissed.

My eyes were full of tears in a second as my hands flew to my hair: a branch. Yeah, well, now I felt stupid.

"What is it?" Christopher asked alarmed.

"Just a little accident" Vicky mumbled "Let's go on"

"Go on?" I repeated, feeling all the weight of my body on my feet "It's 8p.m., it's going to be absolutely dark soon!"

"She's right, we should stop" Tom said.

"I can't walk anymore, let's stop" Dougie agreed.

Vicky sighed "Alright, but we'll leave earlier this time. I think the wolves may be close"

I sighed too; dammit. Stupid animals; eat cows, not _me_!

"Let's find a cave and have dinner" she said. She was kind of the leader as she knew a lot more about the woods than Christopher did. Both Frederick and her used to tell us what to do all the time.

We started walking again, I put my hands on my pockets again and looked put at the stupid trees, then looked down cause it made me nervous not to see what was around me.

"Are you alright?" Dougie asked me, suddenly walking by my side. From the corner of my eye, I saw Vicky smile and walked faster, leaving us a bit behind.

"No, I'm freaking out" I said. It would have been better it I'd just let it go and say 'yeah, I'm fine', but I really wasn't. I was sick of the dirt, the woods, the crappy food, sleeping in caves, _everything_.

"I know, this place is creepy"

I nodded and shirever; it was getting colder and colder as the sun went down. Dougie noticed and put an arm around me. I gave him a killing look but didn't complain; yes, I was warmer that way.

"Don't look at me like that, remember the plan" he whispered.

I nodded again and smiled when I saw Tom talking to Vicky. It seemes that our master plan was working.

"You can sleep by my side again tonight, if you want to..." I said without looking at Dougie, too shy to stare into his eyes. I _am_ fierce, but I'm still just a _girl_.

"Thanks" he said, not looking at me either, but looking down at his shoes -that were buried some inches on the snow-.

"It's just for the plan though" I assured him quickly "You know, so perhaps Vicky will sleep next to Tom"

"Sure, sure..."

"So..." I think I blushed and, for the first time, I was kind of glad of the coming darkness around us "Do you think we're going to make it or do you think the wolves are going to eat us first?"

"I told you I wasn't going to let anything eat you" he said.

"I thought you were going to throw me to the wolves so I would stop complaining" I smiled.

"I thought about it" he teased me and smiled back at me "but I like you a bit more now, so you'll be safe with me"

* * *

**Vicky's POV**

I could not believe my eyes; Alex in the arms of a boy. Dougie sat next to her in the cave and put an arm around her after we'd all had dinner -which was more blueberries-. She didn't seem to dislike it at all and even rested her hair on his shoulder. I stared at them from some meters away, just peeking from time to time as I couldn't help smiling; perhaps she'd finally found someone she could bare or even _love_. He said something and she giggled. I looked away before they could see me staring and looked out at the darkness; I hoped the wolves wouldn't find us. Rick and Chris didn't seem to be bothered by that at all, they were already sleeping.

"They look cute together" Tom said as he handed me a jacket. Tonight was maybe the coldest night and I hadn't brought too many clothes.

"Yes, they do... But let's not look at them anymore, I wouldn't want them to catch us staring at them" I said.

"Would you..." he blushed "... mind if I sleep next to you? It's rather cold tonight"

I hesitated "Alright"

He awkwardly sat next to me, without looking of my eyes. I put my hands around me and sighed; I wish we had blankets!

"If you want, you can rest your body against mine... Maybe you'll be warmer like that. You know, like Dougie and Alex..."

I hesitated again; it'd been a long time since I'd had physicall contact with a guy -except when Tom grabbed me under the water, but that didn't count- and I wasn't quite sure I was ready for it, but what else could I do? I'd be warmer and more comfortable.

I simply nodded and rested my head against his shoulder. A minute later, he shyly put and arm around me. I smiled; Tom was so cute, so shy.

"Stop worrying" he whispered "I can feel it in your body, you're all tense. It's going to be fine, I won't let anything hurt you... I already rescued you once"

I smiled "I don't think I ever properly thanked you for that"

"You don't have to... I just didn't want you to... You know, _die_. You're... Special"

I secretly smiled, knowing that now he could not see my face, everything was way too dark.

His arms around me felt way too good, so warm, and his voice was so sweet, just as every word he spoke. But I was scared, falling in love again wasn't in my list of things to do. Could I ever open my heart again in that way, the way I had with Jason?


	12. Dead

**Enjoy and review.**

**Thanks for the review and the support girls :)  
**

* * *

**Dougie****'s POV.**

Around a week went on and we could not find any help. I tried to keep my mind bussy because I didn't want to think about Danny up there in the mountain, bleeding, without help... I couldn't handle it. Instead, I kept my attention on Vicky and Tom... And, if I had to be honest, on Alex too. We spent most the day together as we tried to make _them _spend time together. Tom and Vicky always went to look for food together before any of the rest woke up and they always came back smiling. They also slept next to each other, just like me and Alex. I'd realized Alex talked on her sleep. She said my name twice one night in a very soft sigh, then again one night. That left me a lot to think about; did she dream about me? Why would she dream about me? Tom always say we dream about the stuff that worries us or things we think about a lot. Did she think about me? What did she think about me?

I certainly thought about her, though I wasn't quite sure I wanted to. She was all tiny and cute, afraid of the dark and the woods, fierce but scared, and I wanted to be there for her. I had the feeling I didn't want to spend time with her just only for our plan, but because I **wanted **to be there with her... And I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. As soon as we found help -if we _ever_ found help at all!-, we would all get in another plane and follow our lifes in different ways.

Vicky was very worried about the wolves, Rick and she had found loads of tracks near the place we'd been and they both thought they were already hunting us, waiting for the perfect time to take us unprotective or alone, so they didn't ever let us be on our own... We even had to go to the 'bathroom' with someone else, which was seriously uncomfortable.

We were walking and walking, as usual. It had been snowing all night long and our feet were buried in the snow, making it very hard to walk, that also made us get tired faster.

I looked at my little Alex and felt confused; did I truly have feelings for her? After what'd happened last night, I was beginning to think I did... I mean, the way I reacted, I was so afraid she may be gone...

**-flashback-**

It was one of the coldest nights, every day seemed to get colder and colder. It was snowing and I woke up alone. Confused, I opened my eyes. The rock were Alex was supposed to be sitting on, next to me, was still warm.

"Alex?" I said with a sleepy voice, way more quietly than I wanted. I looked around but it was way to dark for me to see almost anything. I saw Vicky with her arms around Tom and her head resting on her chest. I smiled for a moment. I saw Chris and Rick both still sleeping aswell, but I did not see Alex's tiny figure. "Alex?" I called again, louder, I recognized the worry in my voice. I stood up and stumble several times as I tried to find her in the dark "Alex!"

"What's going on?" a sleepy voice, Christopher's voice, asked.

"I can't find Alex!" I told him desperately.

"Relax, Poynter!" Alex's voice said from the dark and I turned around to see her walk in the cave "I'm fine"

As soon as she was near me, the urge to hug her won over my senses and I put my arms around her.

"You're so stupid, you shouldn't have left like that! You know it's dangerous" I told her.

"Dougie, I needed to go to the bathroom, alright? I'm fine, see? No wolf ate me, not tonight" it the darkness, I saw her smiling and that was it for me, I knew I liked her.

**-back to normal-**

Now she was taking my hand as we walked... Only because she needed help to walk. It was very cold and extremely pale, but somehow still soft. That's when I started hearing something weird, I didn't not know what it was. Then I noticed the rest of the group had stopped walking.

"Is that-" Tom was about to say, but Vicky cut him off.

"A helicopter" she said, completely sure of what she was saying.

"We're safe!" Alex shouted.

"No, they won't see us, there are too many trees" Christopher said.

"Then let's hurry up! There's a clearing right there!" Alex said and started running surprisingly fast. She started shouting for help really loudly.

"Alex, stop, they can't listen to you!" Christopher shouted as he ran behind her.

"Dougie, go get her!" Tom shouted at me.

"Be quiet, you all, the wolves will find us!" Vicky shouted too. Suddenly we were all shouting at each other until a noise as loud as a thunder, or even louder, made all of us be quiet. I waited for a second until Vicky shouted again, so loud that her voice broke at the end "Alex, get out of there!"

Alex was several meters away from us and turned around confused.

"Avalanche!" Rick shouted "Everyone climb up a tree!"

But Alex was already in the clearing, meters away from the trees, as the rapid flow of snow quickly slid down the mountain towards her. She just stood there frozen, afraid, and I, completely brainlessly and without thinking, ran towards her.

"No, Dougie, come back!" Tom shouted, but I did not stop. I ran towards her and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the trees, but the snow reached us before we were even close to a tree and I managed to pull her in my arms before the snow completely covered us. Then I was sure about it, we were dead.


	13. Fully Alive

**Enjoy and review.**

**Thanks for the review, I love reading them!**

**P.S.: Do you know the song 'Fully Alive' by Flyfleaf? Cool song, that girl has a great voice. The song 'There For You' is super cute and cool, check it out.  
**

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**Dougie****'s POV.**

I don't know how I got stronger in that moment or how I remembered that TV show I'd seen months ago... Maybe the thought of my mum crying over my grave made me want to try again, perhaps thinking of my sister crying was just too painfull to bear, maybe I couldn't simply stand the thought of Alex suffocating under the snow in my arms, maybe I couldn't let down Danny or leave Tom alone... Whatever the reason was, my brain started working...

Around 6 months ago, a long time for me to remember _anything_ at all, I'd seen this TV show that showed different experiences people had gone through in which they had nearly died. One of that had been buried like us in an avalanche... '_As snow blocks your respiration, your heart will accelerate, trying to feed oxygen to your body. When your heart beat reaches 220 beats per minutes, the heart doesn't work any more as a pump, no blood can be carried. You feel you're fainting as your brain gets no oxygen. Unless immediately defibrillated, your heart then stops working all together_' I remembered one of the specialists had said.

'_Calm down_' I thought '_There's no need to make my heart beat even faster_'

I could feel Alex desperately trying to move in my arms, she was going to bury us even _more_.

'_Create an air pocket near your nose and mouth. When the avalanche slows down--but before it stops--cup one or both of your hands in front of your mouth to create an air pocket. With a small air pocket to breathe from, you should have enough air to last at least 30 minutes_' another specialist had said.

I quickly put the snow away from my face, making kind of a whole around me. I remembered the guy had done that and survived. The oxygen wouldn't last long and I quickly did the same with Alex. She took a deep breath, confused.

'_Try to dig yourself out. Though we're sure it will be close to impossible, try to stay calm. The most important thing you can have at that moment is a clear head. Use it._' the survivor had said. **[A/N: I just wanted to say that this is all real information, I love using real facts and it is actually important to know this stuff, girls]**

"Listen to me" I told Alex, who was very close -or already- to panicking "Do not cry, do not shout, do not panick-"

"What the hell, Dougie!? We're buried in snow, for God's sake!" she cried.

"Listen to me, dammit!" I said "We can get out of here, I'm not leaving you to die here. I promised you we would survive and I'm keeping my promise, I _am_. Now, do you trust me or not?"

She hesitated but slightly nodded.

"I know it's hard, but the calmer you are, the more chances of getting out of here we have. Please, do what I tell you and we'll be fine"

I wasn't sure that wasn't a lie... If we were buried more than a foor under the snow, we couldn't do anything but to wait for help, I knew that, but I didn't know how far buried we were and I knew Alex well enough to know that she did not have patience, she wasn't going to wait under the snow.

With my hands, I made our air-space a bit bigger, so it was completely out of both our faces. We were holding each other, our bodies together, our faces inches away.

"Listen, we've got to dig our way out, alright? Don't waist energy or air in panicking, that's going to kill us, ok? I'll help you to dig out. The snow is already settled, we can do this. Just trust me"

"Do you really think we can get out?" she asked me, tears on her eyes.

I couldn't lie to get, but the truth was far too scary. Giving her -_us_- hope would be better.

"Of course" I smiled tenderly "Now, let's go" I was just about to start digging a tunnel to get out, but she got closer to me and stopped me. I looked at her confused and a second later her lips were on mine.

* * *

**Tom's POV**

Once the snow stopped, Vicky jumped off the tree and wildly ran towards the clearing covered with snow.

"No, stop her!" Rick shouted as he started climbing down his tree too "The snow may not be settled"

I jumped off my tree and though my left foot felt weird whe I landed, I ran after her and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Let me go!" she yelled wildly "I've got to find her!"

"No, Vicky, stop" I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her a little bit, trying to make her come back to her senses. She covered her face on her hands and started crying. I pulled her into my arms, trying not to panick or cry myself.

Was Dougie alright? Was he _alive_? Why did he have to do that, why did he have to be so stupid? Why did she have to run in the first place? Did they not know how dangerous this was? Where the hell were they?

"They will be alright" Christopher said, running behind us, but he did not spoke with the truth, he didn't believe the words himself. Rick looked at him, probably thinking the same thing I was; that was a lie, there weren't going to be alright.

Then I remembered something...

"We watch a TV show together a couple of months ago" I said, my heart beating faster as I remembered, the warm feeling of hope spreading through my veins "It was about a dude that survived an avalanche, I think Dougie may know how to get out of there. It's not that hard, loads of people have survived avalanches"

Vicky raised her now red, weat face "Really?"

"Yes, they'll be fine, they'll be fine" I told her, now believing it a bit more.

"Listen, we can not help them now" Rick said "Let's wait until the snow settles a bit more, until it gets a bit more solid... Then we'll look after them... Perhaps they're even digding their way out already"

Vicky took a deep breath and nodded.

Rick and Chris sat down for a moment in silence. Vicky was still in my arms and she didn't seem to want to move from there.

"I promise you they will be fine" I told her and I caressed her back softly.

"How could you know that?"

"Cause I have to... Dougie will be fine, I know it, and he wouldn't let Alex get hurt. He fancies her, remember?" I said and smiled, hoping she would smile too, and she did so... A bit. She rested her hair on my chest and sighed. I softly mumbled, for the last time "They'll be fine"


	14. Something Good

**Enjoy and review.**

**Thanks to perfection-is-overrated** **for all the adds and thanks to all of you for the reviews :) It's always great to hear you like the story but remember that if there's something you don't like say it too, or something you think doesn't fit the story or whatever, you would help me to improve :)  
**

* * *

**Dougie****'s POV.**

I grabbed Alex from her wrist and pulled her up with the little strength I had left. I was feeling dizzy, digging out had took us quite some time, we'd had little oxygen and we were both very tired. I got out first so I could help her. She fell on her knees over the snow and took a deep breath.

"Oh, sweet freedom" she said and she closed her eyes and kept breathing deeply.

"Get up, come on, let's get out of the clearing..." I told her and I pulled her up from her wrists "Just is case there's another avalanche"

She sighed, but did not argue. We fastly walked toward the trees and rested against one of them. We both sat down for a moment as we let our bodies relax for a tiny moment, everything hurt; my head, my arms, but frozen hands, my legs, my feet, even my butt!

"What do we do now?" she asked "Should we look for the others?"

"I think they're ok" I said "Maybe they're looking for us"

"Let's go back to the clearing"

"I'm not going back there, Alex"

She looked towards the clearing and I begged she wouldn't run again like crazy cause I wasn't sure I was strong enough to go get her again... But she staid calmed.

"Do we wait for them?" she said "It's getting really dark"

I looked around; jeez, this place was horrible at night... And now there were only two of us. Suddenly all the things that I learned started to worry me; we'd lost our bags, that meant we had no more blueberried or bread, no more extra-clothes for night-time, the wolves Vicky was worry about may be close and now we were an easier target, we had nowhere to sleep, we had nothing at all...

"Maybe we could try to find them tomorrow. I really think we should find somewhere to sleep before it gets _really_ dark" and we both knew that 'really dark' meant that we wouldn't be able to say anything at all.

I could notice Alex was impatient, surely dying on the inside at the idea of being so away from Vicky and in a place like this.

"She'll be fine, she'd got two big men with her" I told her and she looked at me with worried, anxious eyes "It's _us_ we should worry about you. Vicky said the wolves are close, we'd better keep going"

"Keep going? No, please, I can't walk anymore"

"And you think _I_ can?" I sighed.

She looked up at the tall trees and then back down at me.

"What if we sleep here, in a tree?"

I considered it for a moment; at least we would be safe from the wolves... But we¡d have to climb up and I wasn't sure my feet were willing to do that.

I took a deep breath and stood up. God, I'm going to sleep so much this night. I'm so tired I'm not even hungry, but I've got the feeling my stomach is going to hurt a lot tomorrow.

"I'll help you up" I said, but she raised an eyebrow and smiled in, well, actually in a rather sexy way.

"I don't need help, this is the one, and perhaps the _only_ thing I'm good at. I love climbing trees, I have loads in my garden back home, tall old trees, you know?" she said as she started climbing up rather easily.

Alex made it look so easy that I actually thought is _really_ was easy, but it wasn't at all, and I almost fell loads of times, but she always caught me and helped me up. Once we'd climbed enough to be sure nothing was going to eat us that night, we stopped. I leaned against the tree over a branch and put my arms around her as she rested her body against mine... That was going to be a very cold night. I would try to keep her warm but I wasn't sure I wasn't going to freeze... Dammit, I'm never _ever_ going to complain about the snow in London again...

"Thanks for saving us today, you know? I don't know how you managed to keep my calm, you should teach Vicky how to do it" I heard her giggled and smile too.

"I know, it was a miracle"

"Dougie..." her voice was almost a whisper now "About the kiss... I'm sorry, I just thought we were going to die, I wasn't thinking, I just-"

"It's alright" I said, my cheeks burning as I remembered, not sure what I was feeling "You don't have to apologize, I didn't mind..."

"Oh... Ok..."

We stayed in silence for a while, I wasn't sure if she was already sleeping, but her breathing wasn't as even as when she slept. I liked having her there in arms, perhaps that nice feeling was keeping from falling asleep just now...

I hesitated...

"You know what? We may still die..."

She turned her head around, panick in her eyes. Oh, she got it all wrong... I'm so, **so** stupid.

"What do you mean?" she said "Why would you say that _now_?"

I blushed "I just, you know, cause you said..."

"What?"

"Nothing, forget about it..."

"No, tell me! Why do you think we're going to die? You said we wouldn't, you said you would-"

"I just wanted to kiss you again, alright?"

I looked down, ashamed, feeling so stupid. Oh, God, this is going to make everything so awkward.

"Why did you come back for me today?" she asked, taking me completely by surprise. I looked up, as if the reason was obvious, but I didn't quite know it myself.

"I just... I just thought 'not her'..." I was glad it was dark enough to keep her from seeing my blush... _Again_. But this was the truth, even it took _me_ completely by surprise. Today was a crazy day.

"You're so stupid" she said, surprising me as usual "When I saw you coming towards me, I just thought 'not him'... You shouldn't have come, you could have got hurt"

"You could have got _killed_. Now who's being stupid, huh?"

"_You_ are. If you want to kiss me then just do it, Poynter" from darkness I saw her smiled and smiled back at her before leaning down softly to kiss her. At least there was something good about this day...


	15. Safe

**Enjoy and review.**

**Yeah, I know, I just keep forgetting about Danny and Harry hahaha Sorry!  
**

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**Tom's POV.**

It was already too dark to be able to help Dougie and Alex, and though Vicky did not agree, we found a cave and spent the night there. I could feel her body was tensed all night, she did not relax for one single second. It was snowing a lot that day, it was really cold and I couldn't help wondering all the time if Dougie was alright, warm, safe... I can sound a little gay like that, but he's my bestfriend and neither Alex or him know a thing about surviving in the woods, I couldn't help worrying.

But I couldn't freak out either, Vicky needed me and I would be there for her. I _wanted_ to be there for her. It may be stupid but I was convinced I was already falling for her. Have you ever just watched someone smile at you and just feel amazed, like you could stay there watching them smile forever? I could be there for her forever. And she was so breakable, her broken heart needed to be fixed and I was hoping she would let me do that.

The next morning, Vicky woke us up very early, around 6. We fastly went back to the clearing and started digging a little bit every 10 meters or so. We must have beed digging for around 4 freaking hours -I thought I was going to lose my hands after these- until Christopher finally found something, but not quite what we wanted; Dougie's backpack. That freaked me out a little bit, but I told myself he could still be just fine, he just lost it, the strength of the snow must have ripped it from his arms. Half an our later, not very far from where we'd found Doug's backpack, we found Alex's. That was it, Vicky just flipped.

"Why the hell can't we find them, dammit!?" she shouted and kicked Alex's backpack furiously.

We watched in silence, none of the three of us was sure what we should do with her or tell her. After all, we didn't know her _that_ well, this was the first time I ever saw her mad.

"This minds" she said with the same fury in her voice as she held Doug's backpack with one hand "that, _if _they survived, the spent the freaking cold night with nothing else but their jackets, that they didn't eat, that they have no more extra clothes, _nothing_! They are totally screwed! They're going to die! _If_ they survived!"

"Shut up!" Frederick snapped at her and our heads turned to him "Just shut up! Freaking out won't help. Do you want to help your friend? Then stop this... This _whatever you're doing_ and let's move on, we've got to find them. They're probably waiting for us to find them"

I was waiting for her to start yelling at him, but she didn't, she was back to her normal self. She took a deep breath and nodded.

"I'll carry Alex's backpack" Christopher offered a bit shyly after all the drama, in a low voice.

"I'll carry Dougie's" I said in the same shy, low voice.

"Now, where shall we look for them?" Rick said.

"Well, like I said Dougie watched that TV show" I said "and they said something about getting out of the avalanche zone, so they probably got away from the clearing." Of course this was all a theory. There was always the 'if' Vicky had mentiones; _if_ they were still alived and not stuck under the snow...

"Then form two groups" Christopher said.

"No, we can't get separated, it's too dangerous" Vicky said.

"Well, we'll be only a few meters away from you, if you see the wolves just come to us" Rick said "You go with her, Tom, you surely know how to calm down this lady..."

He smiled as he turned away and I looked down as my cheeks went red.

"Let's go, Tom" Vicky said, blushing a little bit aswell.

* * *

**Harry's POV. A day ago.  
**

It looked bad, really, _really_ bad. I'm no doctor and I don't know a thing about medicine, but Danny's skin was turning into a very weird, very alarming color... Not to mention his lips had no color at all anymore. He hardly woke up anymore and he was always in pain when he did. I went more and more impatient everyday, always making sure that we was still breathing while he slept, always afraid of falling asleep myself just in case he needed me while I was sleeping. How on Earth was it possible that there wasn't even a _nurse _in the plane? In movies and TV shows there are _always_ doctors in planes! Like Lost!

So it was a big, huge relief when they came... Two big guys with big jackets and boots, each of them holding rifles -which freaked out people first-. What were _those _for? As soon as they saw us, one of them grabbed an old-fashioned radio from his huge backpack and started talking to someone. They assured us they were here to help, they'd been looking for us since the airplane was officially declared as missing. None of them, again, for Christ's sake, was a doctor...

But two hours later, a helicopter arrived. People went nuts.

"Please, people, stay calm!" one of them said, holding his rifle to get respect and attention, though we all knew he wasn't going to shoot us "We need to help those who are hurt first"

Danny and another girl were the ones that were hurt the most, so two more big guys came down from the helicopter and with two stretchers, they carried them up to the helicopter. Then, they were gone.

"Soon there are more helicopters coming to help you all. Please remain calm" the one with the rifle said.

I walked towards him as fast as I could, pushing people out of my way.

"Sir, please go back to your luggage and wait" he told me.

"Wait, listen to me for a moment. There's more people in the woods. A group went to find help the day we crushed, they still must be out there" Harry said.

He hesitated "Are you certain about this?"

"Of course I am" I said incredously. Did he think I was kidding? What a stupid question, jeez..

He hesitated again "We'll find them help aswell. Now, sir, please, go back to your luggage"

"What's the rifle for?" I asked.

"Sir, please-"

"Just answer the question"

"The wolves, sir. There's beem complications with thme lately, the pack is getting larger. Now, sir, don't make me ask you again"

I rolled my eyes in irritation, but I saw him moving fatly towards his radio. I just hoped my friends were still alright, alived, and safe from the wolves... At least Danny was safe now.


	16. Disagree

**Hey everyone, sorry for the delay, my mates came over yesterday and I've got visits aswell -unwanted visits who are driving me insane. Oh, and I may have to go through surjery cause the doctors can't cure me. Fuck, fuck, fuck. School's starting next week, talk about depressive...**

**Anyway, let's laugh about my back luck, shall we? Being sad is just not in my list of things to do :)**

**Enjoy and review.**

**P.S.: I hate facebook.  
**

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**Dougie's POV.**

We walked and walked, holding hands, not only because we wanted to but because Alex needed some help with walking in all this snow, she was tiny.

Alex suddenly stopped walking and pulled my arm softly to call my attention. I looked up at her and felt terribly alarmed when I saw her terrified face. I followed her gaze and saw a big, dark wolf just meters away from us.

'_Shit_' was the first thing I thought.

"We're dead" she whispered without taking her eyes off the wolf. If I told my brain not to stare at the wolf anymore, it probably wouldn't have listened obeyed.

"Shut up" I whispered back at her.

The wolf was looking straight at us, completely frozen, almost like a statue... A horribly scary statue. Then it took a step forwards and Alex took one backwards. I caughed her arm fastly.

"Don't move" I whispered trying not to move my lips. I wasn't sure what I was doing -or _trying_ to do-, but I just didn't want the wolf to freak out or something and attack us. You see loads of that stuff on TV.

The wolf made a threatning sound from his throat as it showed us all his teeth. I felt something horrible stuck on my throat and could feel Alex shaking aswell next to me.

'_Do something_' a little voice in my head told me '_Scare it away_'

I took a deep breath and let go Alex's arm. I tried to made myself bigger, look bigger, and shouted as loud as I could as I took some steps fowards fastly, trying not to look scare. Thw wolf looked at me, looked around him, then, to my surprised, turned away and started running.

I stood there, surprised. Did that really just worked?

"Wow" I said, proud of myself "I scared it away"

"No, you didn't" Alex said, panic in her voice "Don't you remember what Vicky said? Now that it's found us, it's going to go after the other wolves and they are _all_ going to come after _us_"

I stared at her for a moment while my courage faded away and panic replaced it.

"We've got to keep moving. _Now_. Fast." she said.

"Yeah, yeah, sure..." I said. She started walking in the opposite direction we'd seen the wolf, but I caught her arm again and stopped her "Alex, if something happens... Please, wait for the others. They **will** come. Someone's probably already looking for us. If something happens to me, climb up a tree and don't climb down"

She stared at me for a moment, then slapped me in the face. Ok, I didn't see _that_ one coming. Then suddenly Alex was crying.

"What the-"

"Don't you say something like that to me now!" she shouted at me fiercely and she burst out in tears "Why should something happen to you? _Nothing_ is going to happy to you! You promised me, you _promised_!"

"I promised I would keep you safe, I'm going to do whatever I have to keep my promise. You're getting out of here, Alex"

"And _you_ are coming with me, dammit!" she pushed me then put her arms around me. Why do I _always_ fall for weirdos? I sighed and put my arms around her too, then kissed her forehead "You can't say something like that to me... You can't leave me alone..."

Oh, God, just please stop crying...

"Alright, alright... I won't, I promise. Please, stop crying, it makes you look ugly"

She gave me a killing look and I giggled

"I'm kidding" I said.

"You'd better be"

"We're wasting time, let's go" I told her. I grabbed her hand and smiled, but she did not smile back, her eyes fixed on something else. I turned around to see not one, but _two_ big wolfs staring at us. Just seconds later, while both Alex and I thought what we should do, another one arrived, standing meters away from the other ones. Then more and more wolves, until there were 7 of them. They all starting making that threating sound. No chance I was going to scare seven wolves away.

"Slowly" I whispered to Alex, trying not to even move my lips "walk backwards. Climb up a tree."

We may have enough time to climb up a tree, the wolves were perhaps 200 meters away from us. Alex would have time to go up the tree for sure as she was faster.

As we very, _very_ slowly moved backwards towards a tree, they moved _forwards_ towards _us_. The moment Alex turned around and simply touch a branch, ready to climb up, they started running toward us.

"Go, go, go!" I shouted at her. She desperately started climbing up, fast enough to be already safe in just seconds, but I was clumsy and practically threw myself to the branch. I went up three branches and stumbled. As I fell over the first branch, I hit my head.

"Dougie, watch out!" Alex cried out in horror.

Then I felt its teeth locked in my leg, just right under my knee. I cried out in pain. The thing was trying to pulled me down to the ground to a surely fast but painfull death.

To my horror, Alex started climbing down.

"No!" I shouted at her as I tried to control my thoughts through the pain.

But then the wolf released me as it made a sound of pain. Alex took my by my wrists and forced me to move.

"Please, Dougie, come on" she said.

I tried to think, I tried to move, but my moves were slow.

"Oh, my God!" Alex said in horror, tears running down her face.

"Go! Move!" a familiar said shouted at us; Rick's voice. I turned my head to see him, he was running with a sharp stick on her hands, the wolves following him, the one that had attacked me was laying unmoved in the ground.

Alex forced me to keep moving up, until we were several feet from the ground. She leaned me against a tree and then ran her fingers through her hair.

"Oh, my God, oh my God..." she kept saying "He's dead, he's dead, he died for us, oh my God..."

But I could not think, I could not feel sorry or guilty, I could not think _at all_, the pain blinding me in everyway. I could feel the blood running down my leg.

"Dougie?" she said and got closer to me, standing gracefully in a branch. She grabbed my face with her hands and examined me for a moment. She suddenly took off her jacket and tore it apart in pieces. Then she went down a branch until she was right next to my leg and used the pieces of fabric as bandages.

"What are you doing?" I managed to say "You're going to freeze"

"You're going to bleed out" she said. She climbed up and sat next to me. Now she was wearing nothing but a tight sweater, I could see she had a fabolous body, very pretty indeed. She put her arms around me, probably looking for warmth.

"Why do you always have to disagree with me?" I said.

"Why did you just take my hand?"

"They would have reached out if I had"

She suddenly started shacking, but stopped. I could notice she was holding back her tears, maybe trying to look brave in front of me.

"You've got to move on, you know that, don't you?" I told her.

"I'm not leaving you here. Besides, I need you or I'll freeze to death. I'll go if you want that to happen"

I sighed and closed my eyes. I would have told her she should take my jacket and leave me here, but she would have probably slapped me again.

"Don't worry" she said, then kissed my cheek "You're fine, you're fine, you're going to be fine"

I smiled "You know that's not truth"

"Why do you always have to disagree with me?" she said as she tried to imitate my voice "We girls are always right, Poynter, so if I say you're fine, then you're fine. Got it?"

"Ok, ma'am"

She softly rested my head on her shoulder. God, I felt so dizzy.

Alex kissed my hair softly "you're going to be fine..."


	17. Touching Hands

**I'm so, so VERY sorry for the delay! These were my last few days of holidays, tomorrow I have my first day at school. This is so damn sad haha Well, I don't really mind going to school, it's not like I _pay_ attention hahaha (I still don't know how my grades are so high) I just hate homework.  
**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Thanks a lot to all of you guys for all the reviews, you totally rock :)  
**

**P.S.: I hate facebook because it's way too white (love myspace) and it's been working like crap lately.**

**P.S.2: I'M GOING TO BE IN A BAND!!! Perhaps....  
**

* * *

**Ally's POV.**

It was dark, very, very dark, but there was a light somewhere far away that let me see what was happening around me. The wolves were more and bigger than I remembered, always so damn scary, with their sharp, long teeth... Dougie was screaming so loud that it hurt my ears. I knew I was dreaming, but that didn't make it better or easier 'cause I was still trapped in my memories.

I tried to climb down the tree as fast as I could, try to grab Dougie's hand and try to help him, but it was as if the tree kept getting longer and longer, and I could never reach Dougie.

"Wait!" I shouted desperately "No! Stop!"

And the wolf kept pulling from Dougie's leg, trying to make him fall. If it succeeded, I would be left alone, without Dougie ever again. And who would want me if it wasn't Dougie? For some reason he cared about me and he could somehow stand my terrible temper.

Then Rick comes out of nowhere, but he doens't help Dougie, he just runs and runs as he tries to escape from the wolves with no succees...

Suddenly Dougie gives in and falls from a tree.

With Dougie's last piercing scream, I woke up. My eyes fly open and I look around; Dougie's sleeping, looking paler than usual. A horrible warm feeling ran through my veins; worry. Desperation. Alarm. His gorgeous eyes were sorrounded by violet marks under his eyes, his lips were losing that cute, kind-of-pink color they had, turning into a rather blue tone.

But then I was a bit more aware of _me_. I was shacking, not because of the nightmare or my worries, but because I was horrible cold. I put my hands deeper into Dougie's jacket and try to take control of my body before he woke up. When I stopped shacking a little bit, I leaned away from Dougie and tried to examine his leg; my before light-blue jacket was now completely red. I felt a big disgusted, I don't like blood, but worry overpowered that other feeling.

I tried to stand up slowly so Doug wouldn't wake up, but I stumbled and fell over another branch. I hit my back against it and quickly grabbed it before I fell again. I was left breathless.

"Shit" I said under my breath, but the words didn't even come out. Ok, _that _hurt.

"Alex, God, are you alright?" Dougie's tired voice said from up there. He was already climbing down, using only his good leg, before I could stop him.

I took a deep breath so I could speak "Stay there, don't move" I told him.

"Are you ok?" he repeated as he leaned carefully against the tree.

"I mean it, stay there, Dougie" I said as I climbed up, trying not to show how much I was in pain "You should lay down, I think you've lost a lot of blood"

"What we should do is go on, find help. I..." he hesitated, then looked away.

"What is it?"

"I... I can't feel my leg. _At all_. I'm no doctor, but that can't be good." he looked at me, his eyes full of worry "I mean, I don't feel **anything**, so I don't feel pain, but _still_, it can't be good"

I thought about our possibilities for a moment.

"Look, remember the helicopter? Perhaps there's people looking for us, loads of people. We should be found soon" I nodded for some reason, trying to convince myself -and Dougie aswell- that was a fact "I'll help you to walk, we'll found _someone_, perhaps Vicky or Christopher or Tom at the very least"

"Ok" Dougie said.

I got closer to him, he would need help to climb down. Before he climb down, Dougie put both his arms around me for a moment and looked at me straight into my eyes.

"You're not going to say 'goodbyes' to me again, are you?" I told him, a bit pissed. I didn't want to hear anything related to his death or about him leaving me here or anything like that, I wasn't going to stand that again.

"No" he said "I was just going to tell you I love you"

* * *

**Vicky's POV.**

I wasn't sure what to think, what to do, what to say... Last night had been confusing and kind od terrifying. We just heard people screaming from somewhere in the deep dark, we weren't sure who was that, then Christopher calling Frederick's name in alarm and fear, then silence. The voices seemed to be nowhere and everywhere at the same time, it would have been impossible to track them.

Tom was sure he'd seen a wolf and we decided the best and safer thing we could do was wait; we wouldn't be able to help Alex and Dougie if we got eaten by wild animals, right? But I was nervous and impatient the whole time. We slept up in a tree, where I knew we would be safe from wolves or bears. Tom sang to me until I fell asleep, his lovely voice was the only thing close to calm I felt then. It was amazing how strong my feelings had grown, how much I wished he would stay with me the whole time so we could look after each other.

I woke up in his arms, he was already awake, staring down at me. His pale cheeks turned red inmediately and I smiled.

"Good morning" I said.

"Hi" he said, then hesitated "You look pretty when you sleep. Peacefull"

I raised an eyebrow "We haven't had a shower in _days_"

"You're still pretty to me..."

"Thanks" I smiled at him. I was glad he was here with me instead of Rick or Chris. I mean, I get on well with them, but Tom... I don't know, I simply needed him around me lately.

"What are our plans for today?" he asked "I haven't seen or heard anything else since last night, you know? There's no sign of Rick, or Christopher, neither Dougie or Alex. Simply nothing"

I sighed and looked down, worry spreading through my body. He must have felt it, he must have felt how my muscles were suddenly tensed. He grabbed my face on his hands and softly pulled it up so my eyes were at the same level than his.

"Everything's going to be alright, ok?" Tom said, he sounded so sure, how did he do that? How could he stay so calm? "Just trust me"

"I trust you" the words ran out of my mouth without permission, so naturally. I blushed, he smiled. He looked so cute when his smile, his cheeks turned kind of weird but so adorable. I giggled.

"Just promise me something..." he said.

"Anything" oh, dear God, is there _any_ way to control my words around him? _Is there_?

"When this is over -cause I promise you we all are going to be fine-, you're still going to let me be aorund you. Please?"

I stared into his eyes, a bit hypnotized. I must have looked super stupid.

"Of course!" I said, losing control of my words again, but they were exactly what I would have said anyway.

He smiled "Perfect. Come on, let's find Dougie and Alex, they are probably both complaining about everything while they rest against a tree" he took my hand and helped me down, though I needed no help at all, I was just glad I was able to touch him in any way. Once we were down in the ground, I didn't let go his hand and he didn't ever seem to want to let go mine. I just walked by his side, a bit happier, a bit more confident, a bit sure that, as long as he was with me, everything would be in fact simply fine.


	18. Opposite Directions

**Once again, and perhaps you think I don't mean it but I_ really_ do, I'm very sorry for the delay, I hate making you guys wait! But I started school and, dear God, a two teachers gave us homework in the very first day at school! I mean, that's _evil_! And I already have like three exams next week so I have to study aswell. What is wrong with this people!? It's only first week at school, jeez...**

**Anyway, as always I want you to know I appreciate a lot your reviews, some are actually funny haha.**

**Enjoy and review**.

**Specials greetins to Vero, who's now reading the story! Thanks for reading :)**

* * *

Trying very hard not to show how horrible exhausted I really was, I smiled at Dougie and helped him take another step. His left arm was over my shoulder, his body resting its weigh on mine, and I was holding his free hand to help him with his balance. Doug still couldn't feel his leg and I had no idea how to help him, I felt so useless. The only thing that was keeping me from freaking out, screaming and cursing was Dougie's face; he looked so sick, so tired, so unlike the lovely, silly boy I'd learned to love so quickly. It was driving me nuts, I was dying to see his smile again.

Pick a spot in your body. Done? Well, that same spot in _my_ body hurts. A lot. I mean, my _butt_ hurts and I'm not even sitting! Dougie's not fat at all, his body looks rather nice (and I'd only seen him with clothes on _so far_), but my body is smaller and weak; I should go to the gym for a while, as soon as I get the hell out of here (though first I'm planning to spend a whole month in the bath and my bedroom). Oh, and now that I really thought about it, I realize we haven't eaten since the day of the avalanche. The fear and EXHAUSTATION had made us completely forget about it.

"Wait" he said, his breathing uneven "Give me a minute"

I just nodded and helped him lean against a tree. We'd done this loads of times, twenty maybe. Not that I cared, I needed those little breaks too, but we weren't moving on much, it seemed to me like we were slowing down more and more.

"We've been walking for only two hours, we should stop stopping" hum, that's confusing.

"I know, I'm sorry, I'm a burden"

"Oh, not at all, that's not what I meant" I said and kissed his ice-cold cheek "I'm just still freaked out about the wolves." I fought back the memories, thinking about anything related to Rick was forbidden if I didn't want to freak out (more than I already had) "They could still be around, right?"

Dougie's face was blank for a moment.

"Doug?" I whispered, unsure. He looked up at me, his severe look alarmed me.

"You're right" he said "The wolves could be around. And you know what that means"

"Do I?" I tried to remember something I thought I was supposed to remember but nothing really came to my mind.

"Look at me, Alex. I'm weak and I'm bleeding, I'm probably the easiest prey in the whole freaking woods. If they come back, then that's it for me"

I felt the fury growing strong in my chest, but I knew it wasn't exactly anger what I was feeling, it was fear, fear of losing him.

"I hate when you stay stuff like that" I said, trying to control my temper "I'm breaking up with you if you go on with that"

"_Break up_?" he repeated "So you're my girl? My girlfriend?"

I blushed; this is the kind of stuff that make boys freak out and ran away –though there was _nowhere _he could run to right then-.

"Of course not" I said "Well, _maybe_… I mean, if you want…"

Dougie laughed. Oh, God blesses his smile! _Finally_ a smile!

"You _really _suck at all the relationship stuff, don't you?" he said, still laughing.

"Maybe!" I said, trying to still look upset.

"Quit the crap, you're my girl, that's it" he smiled again.

"If I have no other choice…" I said with irony and he rolled his eyes "Come on, let's go on…"

* * *

**Tom's POV**

For three and a half hours we walked holding hands like it was something completely normal. I felt like I was in heaven -despite the fact I hadn't had a shower for days and, if we were in a cartoon, I would have turned blue for all the blueberries we'd eaten-. I would have laughed at someone if they'd told me I would like someone this much in so little time, but being out here, in situations of life or death, when you have no idea if you're going to make it through another day, it really makes you think; so what if I had just met her? She was lovely and kind, she was beautiful and smart. What else could someone possibly ask for? Ok, maybe I didn't know her _that_ well, but _bite me_, we could die here, nothing really matters anymore cause out here we _have_ nothing at all...

But it wasn't all about love...

I jumped scared and even screamed when something touched my shoulder and Vicky jumped too, surprised. I turned around in a blink, so did Vicky. Christopher was standing there, looking like crap, very tired, violet marks under his eyes... Oh, boy, this is embarrasing. Did I_ actually_ scream? That's it, 0 chances of marrying Vicky now.

"Oh, jeez, finally, I found you!" he said.

"Where's Rick?" Vicky asked him.

"I don't know, I was hoping _you_ could tell me." he said.

"Why, what happened?"

"It was just last night, we saw some werewolves running all together, they completely ignored us. He said they were after something in particular, then we heard people screaming-"

"Alex!?" Vicky said, taking a step forwards with both panic and impatience.

"I don't know, _maybe_, it all happened so fast. Then suddenly Rick runs after the wolfs with a big, kind-of sharps stick. He's fast, you know? It was dark and I just couldn't keep up with him, I lost him. Then silence. I haven't seen anyone since then. I didn't sleep, sleeping here on your know is freaking scary"

"Oh, God..." Vicky ran her fingers through her hair.

"Do you think it was them, I mean Dougie and Alex?" I said.

"I said I _don't_ know, but probably" Chris said, a bit irritated. Last thing we need is to be mad at each other.

"This is bad, this is really, _really_ bad" Vicky mumbled.

"Do you remember the direction the wolves were going?" I asked Chris.

"Yeah, you're going the exact opposite direction, just like me; the further away from them, the better"

"Ok, let's follow them"

"Follow them?" Chris yelled. Oh, dear God, here comes a fight... "Are you out of your freaking mind!? Our friends could be _dead_, Rick could have been eaten by wolves and _you_ wanna follow them?"

And now something I would have never thought could happened, actually _did_ happen.

Vicky furiously took some steps towards him and grabbed him by his clothes, like a bully grabs a little kid, ready to kick his ass.

"Listen to me" she said. Chris shut up "I don't want to hear you complain, ok? Our friends _are_ out there and we _are_ going to help them. Stay here if you want, bloody coward, you'll get eaten anyway on your own. I'm not going to wait for you. Are you coming or not?"

Oh, I so have to marry this girl.

"Ok" Chris said, looking at her surprised.

"Ok" Vicky said too, still mad.

"Hum, Vicky, I think you should let him go now" I mumbled.

She sighed and stepped back.

"Show us the way" she told Chris and he didn't even hesitated.

As soon as we started walking, Vicky shyly took my hand again. I tried very hard not to smile from ear to ear, it wasn't the best time... But, _damn_, I was happy...


	19. Collapse

**Enjoy and review**.

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**Alex's POV.**

For three more ours we walked. Dougie looked worse and worse by the hour, I was secretly freaking out. The blood ran down his leg, the 'bandage' I'd made was useless now, but I had nothing else to use; I couldn't use any of Dougie's jackets, he needed to be warm, and I thought about using my sweater, but then there would be a really high possibility that I might freeze to dead. I was _already_ freezing.

I knew we should go on, it was too early to stop, but my legs were about to fail and Dougie didn't look like he could walk any more step anymore. It took me around half an hour to help him climb up a tree. We didn't make it too high though, just enough so no wild animal could reach us. He leaned against the tree as he was sitting in a big branch and reached out for my hand. I grabbed his with both mine and kissed it. It was as cold as mine.

"Dougie, I'm going for a moment, I want to find something to eat, you should really eat" I told him.

"No, don't leave me, I'm not that hungry" he said, sounding like that little kid that asks his mother to leave the lights on. So cute, so afraid, so irrisistable.

"I'll be around, I promise. If you need me, just shout, I'll hear you, I _swear_. Ok?"

His eyes said it all, he did not want me to leave... And I didn't wanna leave either, but what other choice did I have? He couldn't walk anymore and I was sure I wasn't able to help him anymore, my body needed a break. God, I hate being tiny. Dougie needed food now more than ever, he needed to be strenght food brings, though my hopes weren't too high; what the hell could an ignorant like me find here? I only knew we could eat blueberries, I wouldn't take any risks with any other plant or fruits; what if our luck got just worse and we ended up eating something dangerous, with poison or something? We would have to eat tons of blueberries to feel satisfied.

"Ok" he said. I gave him a warm smile and kissed him softly. It was alarming how cold his lips were.

Trying not to shake as the sun went down, I climbed down, always looking all around me, making sure nothing would _eat_ me. I wouldn't go too far, sure enough I would get lost if I did. That was a fact. I grabbed some rocks and threw them over the snow every two meters or so, just in case... I walked in a close area to Dougie's tree for like an hour, but found nothing at all. I was impatient, tired and now hungry.

I came back when I heard Dougie calling out my name. I surprisingly found the strenght to ran back to the tree and climb up quick fastly.

"What is it, Doug?" I asked him as I stood un a branch next to him.

"I feel reall,_ really _cold. Colder than last night or this morning. I know I shouldn't complain, you are surely colder than me, but there's something different about this, Alex. It's wrong"

I felt like I had a big piece of bread stuck on my throat. This wasn't good news.

"Don't be silly" I told him, smiling, pretending "Tonight's just colder, that's it... Honey"

He giggled, a very slow sound, weaker "You just called me _honey_?"

"What? I like honey"

"Ok" he said, still smiling "Come here, _honey_, you're probably freezing too" he opened his arms slowly for me and I put my arms around him, under his jacket. Oh, warmth, dear, lovely warmth! I rested my head on his shoulder and sighed.

"Sorry, I found no food"

"It's alright, just stay with me, will you?"

"Always, my dear dummy"

* * *

**Tom's POV.**

For very long hours we walked until we found a cave and decided to rest then. We ate -blueberries- and Christopher slept in a corner of the cave, keeping his distance from us, perhaps because he was offended with Vicky or because he felt uncomfortable with the sudden closeness between her and me. Well, I didn't care, I simply opened my arms to Vicky and she made herself tiny in my arms.

"Say we'll find them" Vicky whispered in the dark, almost too quietly for me to hear "Tell me they're alright, Tom"

"They are fine, Vic. Dougie wouldn't let anything happen to a woman, believe me." I said. Yeah, I knew Dougie, I knew the secrets inside him, I knew he would always protect a woman, no matter what, and that kind of scared me a bit; how far could he go to protect Alexandra? I put my thoughts on the back on my mind and kissed Vicky's hair "Now rest, we'll need energy for tomorrow"

And early we woke up -well, Vicky woke us up at 6a.m.- and very soon we were on your feet, walking. There was absolutely nothing around us -nothing but endless trees and snow, of course-, no human sound, no one at all. I wasn't really use to this, I was used to be sorrounded by people most the time; when I was shopping, when I was with my mates, when I walked in the street. There was always people around me. Now it was only Christopher and my hopefully-next girlfriend. We could have been walking in circles and I would have never found out, but Vicky seemed pretty sure to know where we were going. For more than four hours we walked like that, in silence -at least I was holding Vic's hand-, impatiently, until it happened... It _finally_ happened.

Vicky froze next to me and I looked up; I'd been staring at the ground for the last half hour. Quite many meters away, too far for me to see who it really was, there was someone kneeling down on the snow. The voice of the person was loud, but from the distance we could not hear what he or she was saying. It looked like a girl.

"Alex" Vic whispered, let go my hand and started running toward the girl.

"Wait!" Chris shouted and ran after her, followed very closely by me. Damn, I was tired, but I did not feel it right then.

It took us around 20 minutes to reach the girl... Who was in fact, Alex. My heart almost stopped when I realized Dougie was laying on the ground next to her. She was shaking him, as if trying to wake him up.

"Alex!" Vicky shouted from the top of her lungs.

Alex turned around confused and opened her eyes with surprised. Then she stood up and ran to hug her friend.

"Oh, Vicky! I knew you would find us! You've got to help me, fast!" she shouted desperately.

"What's happened to him!?" I asked as I knelt down next to Dougie. He was as pale as the snow and he wasn't moving. His breathing was very slow and his chest barely moved when he breathed.

"He collapsed about an hour ago!" Alex explained in a rush, panicking "He got beaten by a wolf just the other day. He's lost a lot of blood" he ran her fingers through her hair, big tears running down her face "He's dying, Tom, he's dying!"


	20. Don't Go There

**Hey, girls, I feel stupid apologizing to you _again_ for the delay, but these are crazy days for me; school + annoying mum + controlling boyfriend + pshyco exboyfriend, and the list goes on and on...  
**

**Anyway, school's getting on my nerves, seriously. But I write during classes -though I _shouldn't_-, so I'm back here for you! Thanks for the reviews.**

**Enjoy and review**.

* * *

**Vicky's POV.**

The relief that finally finding Alex alive brought was soon gone as the worry replaced it. Dougie didn't look at all ok and we couldn't wake him up. His skin-color was fading and his breathing was alarmly slow. We all knew there was only one thing we could do for him; find someone else's help. If we didn't, if we didn't finally get rescued, he would probably die.

"I can keep him alive for a while" Christopher said "I've been taught a bit of medicine, just in case stuff like this happens, but I don't know how long he has"

Alex, who was kneeling down on the ground next to Dougie, holding his hand, heavy tears running down her face, gave him a killing look. I suppose she was upset cause he was already thinking about Doug's death. She was wearing nothing but her sweater, so silly of her, she could get seriously ill and cold. I silently put one of my extra-jackets over her shoulders, but she didn't seem to notice or care.

Oh, dear God! She's really fallen for him! Alexandra has _finally_ fallen in love! It was a extremelly weird situation -not to mention he was dying-, but it was a huge, massive progress... And what if he actually died?She would be like I was a couple of years ago, after Jason's death; a zombie. I didn't think, I didn't talk, I didn't sleep, I didn't eat. I just cried and cried all day long. I didn't want that to happen to my bestifriend, I wasn't going to allow it!

I took another of my extra jackets, my last one, from my backpack and ripped it in several pieces of fabric. Then I tightly tied one part over Dougie's knee, trying to stop the blood from going to his leg. I took off the bandages Dougie had and uncovered his injury. It had a horrible black and kind-of blue (for the cold) color. Alex just covered her eyes and cried even harder. I threw some water over it and tried to clean it a little bit; Dougie wouldn't feel it. Tom's face was a mix between deep disgust and panic. Chris had simply turned away. I gave a fuck, I would keep this boy alive no matter what; he _had_ to live, I _had_ to keep Alex happy. I tied the other piece of fabric around his leg, now he probably wasn't going to bleed as much as before if I'd tied the first piece of fabric tight enough.

"He's going to be fine, Alex" I said, comforting her, as I cleaned the blood from my hands.

"Oh, don't you freaking lie to me, Vicky!" she said, sobbing.

"Let's not fight, shall we, girls?" Chris said "We've got to go if you want him to survive"

"How are we going to go anywhere? He can't walk, he can barely _breath_" Alex said.

Everybody stayed silence for a moment, thinking of some kind of way to make this right. Leaving him here with somebody else would be stupid and risky: who knew if we would find the way back to them after we got help? What if they got attacked by the wolves again? No, leaving someone here was out of the question, we all had to move on together.

Tom was the faster to think of something.

"You girls stay here, Chris and I will go and find big branches. We can make some kind of stretcher and carry him with it" he said in a rush. He probably next we didn't have much time, every single minute was important.

"Ok, yeah, let's do that" I said "We can take turns to carry him. Go, guys, go. Try to find dry branches, those will be more usefull"

They both nodded and disappeared in the woods.

Alex caressed Dougie's nose with sweetness, then his lips, then his hair.. It still surprised me.

I took her hand and sighed.

"I promise you I'll do everything I can to save him" I mumbled. Nothing I said would make this easier for her, I knew that, I'd been there before and lost it all, but it needed to be said.

"I know" she whispered in a low voice instead of her loud, fierce usual tone "I'm just worried it won't be enough"

"Alex, when Jason died-"

"Oh, no, Vic, please don't go_ there_" she said, closing her eyes. She looked so tired, so breakable, my poor friend "We'll have this talk if he dies but as long as his heart is beating, don't, please, I can't... If I don't have hope now, he'll die easier"

I nodded.

"I just need you to be here" she said "and you are"

I stood up, sat on the ground next to her and put an arm around her.

"We'll get him out of here. I promise"


	21. Chances

**Thanks for the support girls :) All of it, it helps.**

**I'm going to the beach next month for four days, I will surely write something on the 10 hours journey by bus (not to mention the 10 hours journey to come back home).  
**

**Enjoy and review. I'm glad you're liking it!**

* * *

**Vicky's POV.**

It took the boys around 45 minutes to find usefull branches and come back. I'd told Alex to close her eyes and sleep, but she reused to do so and stayed by Dougie's side the whole time, impatiently moving her foor, so damn close to panicking. She was actually taking this better than I thought.

Chris and Tom grabbed their extra-jackets from their backpacks and started to tear them in long pieces. Thirty minutes later (that would be a total of one hour and fifteen minutes of Doug's time that wouldn't come back), the stretcher was ready. Tom and I carefully moves Dougie and layed him down on the stretcher. I tied him to it with some more pieces of fabric so it'd be easier for us to carry him. Tom gently handed his last extra jacket to alex and she sweetly put it over Dougie.

"You had Alex's backpack" Tom suddenly said as he turned around to face Chris.

"Oh, yeah, about that... I gave it to Rick, my back hurt and that bag was really heavy, so, yeah..." he said, looking down. Tom moved his head from side to side, disappointed.

"It'd be really usefull right now" he mumbled.

"Please don't talk about Frederick" Alex said as she closed her eyes, probably struggling against madness.

Tom and I looked at each other, both worried about her.

"Come on, let's go" Chris said.

"Give me Dougie's backpack, I'll carry it for you" I told Tom **[a/n: remember they had found their backpacks after the avalanche? I almost forgot. ALMOST] **

"Alright" he said. He gave me a small smile for a brief moment and I couldn't help feeling lucky: they boy I wanted was safe and fully alive. When he handed me the backpack, I shyly stepped forwards and rested my hand on his pale cheek. We looked into each other's eyes for a moment and I caressed his cheek once. He blused, he looked stunned. I turned away and walked towards Alex. She was looking at me with curiosity.

"What was _that_?" she waked me in a very low voice so only I could hear while the boys carried Dougie.

"We'll talk later" I mumbled.

"Oh, come on, I'm in a middle of a crisis, I _need_ to be distracted" she said as she glanced quickly toward Dougie. Her face was sag again. Oh, God, it kills me to see her that way, so sad.

I turned my head a little bit too and stared briefly at Tom and Christopher, who were around two meters behind us. I sighed and turned my head again.

"There's really nothing to say" I mumbled as I put my hands on my jacket's pockets.

"Oh, come on" Alex hissed impatiently "Do you like the guy or not?"

"Sure..." I said, looking down at my dirty shoes "I mean, he's sweet and talented, I really don't know his music but I know their band is huge" I hadn't listened to music since Jason died. Alex had always made sure no one put music when I was around after 5 times I broke into tears when someone turned on the radio "and he seems to be a good guy, but, I don't know, I don't know him that much"

"Oh, Vicky.." Alex sighed and looked down aswell. I looked up at her.

"What?"

"Honey, I _know_ you still love Jason" she spoke every word very carefully, choosing them properly in her troubled mind "and I know you always will, but... Vic, we're young. You've _got_ to move on. You've got to fall in love again. I mean, _I_ have! _Me_! And Tom... Tom is great. I like him for you. And you know that means a lot from me..."

"I know, I know but-"

"You're in denial, Vic"

"I'm not in denial!" I was starting to feel the heat inside me.

"Is everything alright?" Chris asked from behind us. I guessed I spoke a little bit too loud.

"Yeah, we're cool here" Alex said and faked a rather convincing smile, but she would never be able to fool _me_. Then she turned her head around again and looked at me "Look, unless we get eaten by wolves, which I now _strongly_ believe we could" her voice went up an octave ", we are getting out of here sooner or later. There was famous people in the plane; Tom, Dougie and their bandmates, which means they probably started looking for us even sooner, and it's been around 2 weeks since we're here, I don't even remember how long exactly anymore. What do you think it's going to happen once we get rescued?"

I stared at her briefly. I really wasn't in the mood for chatting anymore, even less with Tom just meters away from us.

"What?" I said so she would just tell me.

"Tom's going back home. With or _without_ you. If Dougie gets out of here alive" her voice went up an octave _again_, my poor Alex ", you can _bet_ I'm going to see him again in England. But what about you, Vic? They are busy people and Tom doesn't seem like a guy who fools around. _This_ is your chance. Take it, Vicky. You've got nothing to lose"

"'Cause I _already_ lost it all, Alex" I mumbled under my breath, irritated.

"But when you hit bottom, the only way is up. You've been through the worst ever, I know that, Vic, I was _there_ with you the **whole time**. That's why I know that nothing but good things can happen to you know...You just have to be brave. Open your heart again. You can't close it, not forever, not from everybody"

"I love you"

"Yeah, but as far as I know, we both are into males, not _females_" she smiled at me a little bit and reached out for my hand. I took hers; it was colder than mine. Jeez, how long had she been without a jacket? I hope she wouldn't get sick. How the hell _didn't_ she get sick? "Give Tom a chance, honey"


	22. Heartbeats

**Hey girls, how are you doing? I think this is a website where you share so why don't you take a look at other's girls stories? I checked the list of stories from the girls that have reviewed in this story and here are the accounts that have uploaded their own stories:** dopeyangel101 ; perfection-is-overrated ; shinespire ; McSteph. **It'd be nice if you checked them out, maybe you'll find something you will end up loving!**

**Enjoy and review. Thanks for being patient and waiting :)  
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**BTW, thanks to Amy for all the reviews, you don't have an account so I can't thank you. I've got a story with a girl with your name, but I haven't uploaded it yet.**

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**Vick's POV.

A day later, at around 4pm, we were still walking, still lost. We knew we had to keep going and we had to be found... _Soon_. Sooner than we thought we should. At least Dougie was ok now... Well, '_ok_'; he was alive and breathing... _Unlike_ last night.

-Flash back, 10pm-

We were having 'dinner' (which would be more blueberries, surprise! -You'd better realize that's sarcasm), Tom sitting by my side, as always, my back against the cold rock of the small cave we were in. Alex, as we all expected, never stayed more than 5 inches away from Dougie... Or that may actually be too much. Let's make it 4. Christopher was at Doug's left side; he's put Dougie's hand over his chest and Chris had his hand tightly closed in his wrist to cheek his heartbeats. Everything was quiet, the four of us were so tired. I was so going to sleep in 5 minutes. Tom and I would have to be particulary close today, none of us had any more extra-jackets and, damn, it was cold.

Suddenly Chris dropped his blueberries and knelt down next to Dougie.

"Dougie? Hey, Dougie, wake up, can you hear me?" he said as he slapped him in the face.

"What, what, is something wrong?" Alex asked as she dropped her food too and knelt down, packing fast, as usual.

Christopher looked at me severelly "Vicky, come quickly, his heart's stopped"

"What!?" Alex shouted.

"Tom" I simply told him and he understood. He gently grabbed Alex by her wrist and moved her so I could take her place.

"He's death!?" Alex shouting.

"Alex, please, be quiet" Tom told her.

I quickly knelt down next to Dougie. Chris put both his hands over Dougie's chest and pressed them against it three times. After the third time, I leaned forwards, opened his mouth and passed him air.

"Again, come on" I told him.

Alex was sobbing and I was getting nervous. Three times after we did that, Doug still had no pulse.

"Vicky!" she shouted at me, completely out of control "Bring him back, bring him back!"

"I'm trying!" I yelled at her, losing control too, just desperate; I can tell you there's nothing worst that witnessing someone's death, even worse when the boy who's dying is the one chance for bestfriend has to fall in love.

"Try harder!"

"How the hell do you want me to do that!?"

"Victoria, focus!" Chris yelled at me and unconsciously hit Dougie's chest harder than necessary.

"He's got pulse!" Tom said. He'd been holding Dougie's wrist the whole time.

"You do!?" Alex shouted histerically, her face and eyes red like a tomatoe. She was completely out of control, she looked mad.

"Shut up for a second" Chris said and got closer to Dougie's face. He listened carefully for a moment, to Dougie's breathing "Yeah, he's got pulse, he' steady"

"How do we know he's not going to go through... _this_... again?" Alex asked, moving her hands nervously. Chris looked at me, I sighed.

"We don't, actually" I said, calmer now "Things like this happen between hours... It could be in for hours, a day or days..."

"But we're running out of time, aren't we?" Tom said in a low, sad voice.

"Who said we had time?" Chris said without meeting his eyes in a darker tone. Alex started sobbing again. Oh, damn, thanks Chris! Does he not realize she needs us to lie to her and tell her Dougie's going to be fine? These boys have no common sense at all, dear God.

"Oh, Alex" I told her, stood up and put an arm around her "Don't cry, honey, we're all going to be fine, Dougie included" Chris looked at me, his right eyebrow raised and I shot him a killing look; he looked away quickly.

"Sure, we'll be fine" he mumbled.

-present-

Alex hadn't almost slept, she was way too freaked out about last night and spent big part of the night making sure Dougie was breathing. He never woke up though. Tom forced me to sleep and not to stay up with her; "I need you to be fully awake" he'd told me. He was right, if I was all sleepy the next day, I wouldn't be too usefull. So I'd closed my eyes, let him embrace me and fell asleep.

We were in silence, I bet all the four of us could think about was what happened last night. Alex was by my side, I had my hand locked around Dougie's wrist, checking his pulse. Alex was kind of still in shock, her eyes wide open as she stared down at the dirty snow in the ground. I was worried about her; what was going through her mind? She'd never been this quiet before, it was alarming.

Chris just didn't say anything about Dougie or the fact that we just found no one at all in so many miles because I asked him not to for Alex's sake, and he seemed to have nothing else to talk to us.

Tom, in the other hand, gave me small smiles from time to me, supportive smiles. He looked so cute, like he still had hope that everything was going to be fine; I think he was the only one with hope and faith right now. How did he do that? How could he stay calm while he was carrying his bestfriend in a stretchet made of wood and broken jackets? I guess he was just being Tom, calm and sweet, always, no matter what... Just like I needed him to be. I smiled back at him briefly. My heartbeat sped up, I loved the way he looked at me.

Suddenly something changed.


	23. Lullaby

**So I wrote the whole chapter and then I confused the 'facebook' window with '' window and close this last one and lost everything I'd written. I'm such a genius.**

**Enjoy and review. 67 reviews, wow, thanks a lot!**

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**Vicky's POV.**

"Alex?" his voice was soft and low that we probably wouldn't have heard him if any of us would had been talking. Honestly, first I thought I was hearing voices, his voice was completely unrecognizable. But Alex froze next to me, which meant she'd heard the voice too.

"Dougie!?" she said, rushing to his side.

"Put him down" I told the guys. Well, they would be gratefull for that, they'd been carrying Dougie for hours. Dougie's eyes were still closed and he was breathing unevenly, but at least he was breathing.

"Did you hear that too?" she asked, nervously, probably thinking she was just hearing voices like I did.

"Yes" Tom said. I knelt down next to the stretcher and softly shook Dougie a little bit by his shoulders "Dougie, can you hear me?"

"Can you open your eyes?" I asked him.

"Tom?" he said again in that low voice. We would all have to shut up to be able to listen to him "You found me" he slightly smile, just for a brief moment. Tom smiled from ear to ear.

"Of course I did, dude"

"Where's..." he took a deep breath, as if talking was a huge effort "Where's Alex?"

"I'm right here, honey" she said, tears of joy in her eyes. Oh, my dear God, all mighty! She just called him '_honey_'! She'd never called anyone honey, except for me! I need to marry this two as soon as we get out of here and I _have_ to take Dougie out of here _alive_.

"Are you alright, Alex?" he opened his bright blue eyes a little bit, but they didn't have the same stupidity -I mean it in a good way- and magic the had before, they were just blue eyes, tired eyes.

"I'm fine" she said.

"What.. What happened? I can't remember..."

"You fainted, but you're fine now" I said.

"I don't feel fine"

"How do you feel?" Chris asked him.

"I'm..." Dougie slowly closed his eyes "Tired"

"No, hey, Dougie keep your eyes open" I told him, shaking him a little bit again.

"I'll close them for just a second..." he mumbled. Tom looked at me, worried. Dougie didn't open them again.

"Dougie...?" Alex mumbled impatiently, shaking his hand.

"Let him rest" Chris said.

"Is this a good sign? I mean, he's back to being conscious" Tom said.

"I don't know, I'm not a doctor, I'm a pilot, remember?" Chris said.

"Oook, so..." what's up with Chris? He's been very moody lately "I think we should go on, there's a storm in the distance and I think it will hit us soon"

"How can you tell there's a storm coming?" Alex asked confused.

"The horizon is covered with grey clouds" I raced an eyebrow "Besides, didn't you notice we haven't heard a bird in hours? Seriously, guys, pay more attention"

"Sorry, Miss Indiana Jones!" she rolled her eyes and turned to Dougie again. Ok, so some _else_ is temperamental today aswell. Awesome, just what we needed...

"Whatever, thing is, we should find a rather big cave _soon_. I have the feeling this is going to be a rather big storm" I took a deep breath; I hated storms. More than anything in the world. Jason died the same day a a rather big storm hit the hospital where he was staying, right here in New Zealand. Ever since that day, storms have terrified me. I mean, all the noise the thunder makes and the lightnings just freak me out... But I had to stay strong, at least until we found a safe place, for the sake of the group.

"Let's go on for a while and see what we can find" Chris said. He looked at the stretcher for one moment, and sighed; this two boys had to be dead tired "Shall we, Tom?"

I may say we were rather lucky to find a usefull cave pretty sooner that I'd expected; perhaps we were getting lucky at last? The bad thing was that now that we were out of food -blueberries actually, not _real_ food- and we couldn't get out, we would have to starve until the storm finally passed. In just a few hours, the storm begun. First, the wind, then the thunders, so loud that I covered my ears from my spot in the deepest corner of the cave. Tom sat next to me, put his arms around me and kissed my forehead.

"Someone doesn't like storms, am I right?" he said.

"You may" I mumbled.

"Just try to ignore it" he whispered as the rain and the lightnings begun. Oh, dear God, I _hate_ this.

"_Sure_" I said with obvious sarcasm.

"The rain can't hurt you, it's just water. And a lightning can't hurt you either, not as long as we're here"

"It's not the storm I'm afraid of. It just freaks me out... It brings back bag memories" I looked away from him, looked at Alex for a moment and felt jealous; she was already sleeping, resting next to Dougie, holding his hand. Chris was just sitting in an opposite corner, I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or not, it was too dark to see.

"Well, I'll try to distract you, then" he said "I'll sing a song for you and I'll stay up until you fall asleep."

I hesitated "You promise?"

"I promise" I let him pull me closer to him and let his hands caress my hair.

"Why are you so nice to me, Tom?" I asked.

He hesitated, I waited in the dark as I closed my eyes; seeing the lightning outside just freaked me out even more.

"Cause I think I may be in love with you"

"Oh..." was all I could say.

"Yes, _oh_..." he took a deep breath. I hoped he didn't take my 'oh' as a bad sign... But did I want him to be in love with me? What_ the hell_ did I want? "Now just relax and try to fall asleep"

Soon he begun singing a rather sweet lullaby and after a while, and though I had to concentrate a lot, it was as if I could not hear the thunders anymore, just his soft, lovely voice, singing for me and no one else but me. I would let him love me as long as I tried to figure out if I loved him too.


	24. Blood

**When you think things are _finally_ working out for you, faith suddenly puts a finger over you and decides to screw with you. If there's a God, would _somebody_ mind asking him what's his problem with _me_? Thanks. BTW, Vicky, I miss_ the hell_ out of you, get better and come visit me before my head explodes, will you?  
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**Enjoy and review.**

**Slightly longer chapter for you today girls.  
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**Vicky's POV.**

"You're gonna love again" he's said, his voice barely a whisper in the scary silence that filled the room, but Jason was still, _somehow_, smiling "You're gonna smile again. You're gonna _live_. You gotta make the best you can with the time you've been giving, time to live... Unlike me, babe. You gotta do it for me."

"Can't do that, honey" I said, whispering too, holding his pale, weak hand, trying to remember every little detail of his face, hoping I would never forget them. I would have given him all, everything he ever asked me, but not this, I couldn't make a promise I wouldn't want to keep "Can't live without you"

"_Alex_ can't live without you. Do it for us. You've got a whole life to live. There's so much you still haven't seen... And you will, but just not with me, Vic"

"Then I don't _want_ to see them!"

He half-smiled "Why do you always have to be so stubborn?" then his face got a bit more serious "Baby..." he raised his free hand to caress her wet cheek, wet from all the crying "You've made me the happiest husband ever and I'm sorry I couldn't give you a child, I know you would have liked that-"

"I don't care, I just want you"

"But you can't, you can't have me anymore. You've gotta do it"

"Do what?"

"You gotta let me go"

I opened her eyes as I gasped for air, struggling against Tom's arms, though I had no idea way.

"Hey, hey, are you alright?" he asked, confused, probably thinking he'd done something wrong or something that had upset me.

It was still dark, but somewhere far away the sun was rising, making everything look like black, grey and white, like a movie, so surreal. The storm had stopped, but it was still windy and the sky was a mixed of dark blue, light blue, orange and yellow and loads clouds. I could barely see Tom's cute face, full of concern. I tried to calm down and sobbed loudly; was I crying?

"Are you crying?" he asked, surprised and still confused.

"Think so" I mumbled.

"I'm so sorry, Vic, did I do something wrong?"

I almost laughed "Of course not, Tom, I just had a bad dream" a bad memory, actually. One of my last memories with him.

"Oh" he said, hesitated for a brief second, then put his somehow-warm arms around me, pulling me back to his chest. They seem to fit with my body perfectly, as if they had been made to hug me. Tom was so delicated, moved me softly like I was a breakable, porcelain doll "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

I took another deep breath "Just... Talk to me"

"Hum, ok-"

"And hug me"

"I can do that" was that a smile I saw on his face? I couldn't tell, it was still too dark "What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything will do"

"Well... I think I'm not ever eating blueberries when we go home" he said, as his body shook a bit as he giggled. It moved my body too.

"You sill think we're going home?"

"You don't?" he sounded so surprised.

"Dunno... It's been quite long..."

"Oh, no you too. I need you to be possitive."

I sighed "Ok..."

"That's not very convincing... Just look at it this way: we're going to get out of here, Dougie's going to be fine and Alex is going to go out in a date with him, we're all going back to our families and friends, I'm going on some long holidays in my bathroom, I'm going to ask you out-"

"Hold on right there, Fletcher" I said.

"What?" there was the slightest of changes in his voice, but with all this silence, I was able to hear it "Well, we can skip that part if you don't want to go out with me... It's not like I haven't been rejected before anyway"

"No, no, that's not what I meant" I think I was blushing.

"Then what did you mean?"

"I dunno... I don't know what I meant. I just-"

"You don't have to explain anything to me. When we get out of here, I'll ask you out. When the moment comes, you answe whatever you can. Until then, relax. I don't want you to freak out"

I smiled "Ok... Talk to me, tell me about your friends and family..."

Tom talked and talked, filling the cave with nothing but the sound of his voice. I had the feeling he could talk about this subject for ours. By the way he spoke about all the people in his life, I could tell he adored them all, there was just love in the way he mentioned each name, adoration. His little sister, Carrie, sounded so cool, and I would have loved meeting his parents. His two bandmates, who'd been in the plane but I hadn't noticed, sounded amazing too. He was in love with his job, with his life, utterly happy the whole time.

But suddenly Alex interrupted our conversation, it was very early, around 8 a.m. I guess, the sun already giving some color to the top of the trees and mountains. I hadn't noticed she'd woken up, maybe I¡d been too absorbed listening to everything Tom was telling me.

"Vicky!" she called urgently, a bit of panic in her voice "Vicky, come quickly!"

I stood up awkwardly, my feet cold, holding Tom's hand for support. He stood up too, a bit more gracefully than me, and didn't let go my hand untl we both knelt down next to Dougie.

"What is it?" I asked Alex. She simply raised her hand as an answer; one of her fingers was covered in blood.

"Alex, honey, what happened to you!?" I asked.

"It's not mine, it Dougie's blook!" His nose's bleeding" she said. I looked down to examine him; apparently, Alex had cleaned the blood from his face with her jacket, but there was still some there "I just woke up and his nose was like that"

"Tom, please weak up Chris" I told him. He nodded silently and moved to the opposite corner, where Chris was still somewho sleeping.

"Is he going to be ok?" Alex asked, her voice trembling. Oh, please, just _please_, don't try! "Is he going to wake up again?"

"I don't know, Alex"

"But you'll do your best to keep him alive, won't you?"

I swallowed, feeling the huge wieght of the words she was keeping, of what she was asking me; Alex was, perhaps unconsciously, making me responsable for his life. But I didn't know anything about medicine, just the usual, necessary stuff.

"Of course" I chocked out the words.

"Now _what_?" Chris said with a deep, sleepy voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry" Alex said fiercely with an ironic tone "are we by any chance bothering you?"

"Alex..." I simply said, the silent warning in my voice completely clear.

She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"His nose's bleeding" she told him "Is that a bad thing?"

"_Of course_ it is" he said and rolled his eyes as it he'd been explaning this for hours to a five years old. Alex was about to say something, probably something ironic or just an insult, completely angry, but stopped herself when she caught me looking at her, that silent warning in my eyes again "Did he hit his face or nose?"

"Not that I know" Alex said through her teeth. Oh, God, there's pure antagonism growing here.

"Then he may have internal bleeding or something else, I can't be sure and I don't know that much of medicine either"

"What do we do?" Tom asked nervously "Internal bleeding is known for being very painful and it's damn serious"

"Yeah, what can we do for him?" Alex said, moving her hands weirdly, a clear sign of her anxiety.

"Look around, kiddo" Chris said "There's no way to help him. Your boyfriend's dying"


	25. Waiting

**Oh, my dear God, I got lucky! I did! I had good luck for _once_! I did, oh God, I _did_! Think I'm gonna cry haha (I hope that happens again today)  
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**My mum brought me loads of books from Egypt (dunno_ why_ they were in English, but whatever...), all by the same author; ****Madeleine Wickham (she's also under the name of ****Sophie Kinsella)****. The first one I'm reading is called 'Twenties Girl' and it's hilarious. Check them out if you want/can!  
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**Enjoy and review.**

**I like making tittles with just one word :D  
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**P.S.: once again, thanks for all the reviews, there are so many! You guys rock!  
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_"What do we do?" Tom asked nervously "Internal bleeding is known for being very painful and it's damn serious"_

_"Yeah, what can we do for him?" Alex said, moving her hands weirdly, a clear sign of her anxiety._

_"Look around, kiddo" Chris said "There's no way to help him. Your boyfriend's dying"_

**Tom's POV.**

Alex threw herself to Chris over Dougie's body and punched him in the face.

"I'm not a _kiddo_ and he's _not_ dying!!" she yelled fiercely. Wow, this girl had a strong attitude.

I quickly grabbed her by her waist with my hands and pulled her backwards, away from Chris, before she could punch him again. Vicky stood between Chris and us; he was a perfect gentleman, but he was kinda losing his mind lately. Maybe that's what that place did to people, specially when they started losing hope.

"Alex, stop!" she snapped at her. Alex didn't struggle against my embrace.

"Are you out of your freaking mind!?" Chris shouted furiously.

"Stop yelling, both of you!" I said, raising my voice over theirs "This isn't going to help Dougie!"

Chris cleaned the blood from his nose with his forearm and Alex took a deep breath to hold back her tears. Vicky looked at her best-friend, pain in her eyes; she would be unhappy as long as Alex was sad too... So I had to be strong for her, for Dougie, for us.

"Our friend is dying and you start silly fights?" I said.

"He's not dying" Alex mumbled.

"She started" Chris mumbled at the same time.

"Oh, shut up, both of you." Vicky said, backing me up.

"Now that everybody is awake, we'll eat breakfast and keep walking. I do _not_ want to hear any of you complaining. You're losing control over yourselves"

Then I turned Alex around to look at her eyes and swallowed, hoping she wouldn't punch _me_.

"Alex, I know it's hard but as much as it hurts or no matter how hard we wish things were different, Dougie _is_ dying" something felt awkward in my throat and not in a pleasent way; I liked saying this out loud as much as she liked hearing it "You ned to put your feelings away to help him, stay as calm as you can. I don't want him to die either. So help us help him"

Alex looked at me for a brief moment, then burst out in tears. I put my arms around her again and caressed her hair, trying to control _myself_; hey, I'm a guy but this _is_ a hard situation, watching a friend die, not knowing if he' actually gonna make it or if he'll die right in front of you, slowly and painfully. I was surprised of how much I could control myself for the sake of the whole group.

"I'm not giving up" I whispered in her ear "I'll do anything to save him"

"What if you _can't_, Tom? What if we fail?"

I tried to think in something clever to answer, but I couldn't think of anything, there was no '_if_' in my mind; I _had_ to make it, we _couldn't_ fail him.

Luckyly, Chris interrupted our small conversation.

"Look, maybe we're been too nagative about this whole thing" he said "Remember the helicopter, the day of the avalanche?" we all nodded "Well, that means there's _obviously_ people looking for us, maybe they've even found the bigger group. And you" he looked at me "are an English very famous celebrity, everybody in Europe must know about your disappearance by now. That will force New Zealand's autorities to work harder to find us because now they've got more eyes on them, if you know what I mean. Everybody is expecting them to find us, I know how these things works, and you do not ever want to look incompetent in front of Europe... That's pure politics"

"He's right" Vicky said "We should keep going, then we'll have more chances to be found"

"Alex?" I whispered. She nodded and washed away the tears with her thumbs "That's my girl. Come on, let's go" she smiled at me tenderly for just a second and then stood up.

"Get your stuff and let's go" Chris said, talking like a leader again.

I walked towards my backpack and didn't notice Vicky following me until I turned around and almost bumped into her.

"Is everything ok?" I asked her. She raised an eyebrow and half-smiled without humor "_Right_, stupid question"

"I just... I wanted to thank you for being so sweet with Alex. I'm surprised she didn't hit you the moment you touched her. She doesn't like being touched"

"I was surprised too, believe me"

"She must like you. And, believe me, _that's_ saying a lot; you've got to be pretty special"

"Do_ you_ think I'm special?"

Ok, yes, I got, I understood perfectly that her situation was complicated; her husband had died, leaving a whole in her that would never be filled again. That kind of stuff, that kind of _lost_, can never be forgotten and that kind of love can never be replaced, but I could offer her something similar, as much strong as the love he'd offered her, at least strong to _me_. I wasn't the hottest, the funniest, the smarter, whatever, but I _was _a decent guy and I _could_ be good enough for her, she just had to give me a chance to show her that I could be everything she wanted, everything her husband had been, and that I did not expect her to just forget about him.

"Yes, you are... I just need a bit more time to see if I'm ready to let you be even more special to me" she said, saying the last few words so lowly that I could barely hear her.

"I know" I said, whispering, making this conversation a bit more private "and I will we waiting for your answer right here"


	26. Falling Down

**_Sweetest song on the history of music; Smother me (by The Used)... You HAVE to hear it._**

**I'm listening The Used so loud that my ears hurt, but I'm glad I'm pissing my mum off :) I'm evil (?) Hey, she _so_ deserves it!**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Oh, btw, you'd better review, this is the longest chapter so far.  
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**Vicky's POV.**

Things weren't improving. In fact, they were getting worse. The next day after Dougie's nose started bleeding, he started sweting; fever. That was_ definitely_ a bad sign. I just woke up without Tom's arms around me and, don't ask me _why_, that gave me the feeling that something was wrong. I looked around and saw Tom kneeling down next to Dougie, a wet shirt on his hands. He placed it over Dougie's forehead and exchanged a concerned look with Alex. Both Chris and I kept silence; we both knew this meant Dougie had less time that we'd thought and saying that out loud wouldn't be the smartest idea, it would only cause more panic for Alex and more pain for Tom. I knew he was trying his best to stay calm, but he was breaking inside. I just wondered how long I had until he exploded, just like Alex. How would I deal with _that_?

"Vicky" Alex said, an edge of panic in her voice. I barely recognized it, I was so used to it by now that it seem really common. She was around three meters to my left, walking with her head down and her hands on her pockets, a constant concern look in her face. Tom and Chris were behind us, just a couple of meters aswell.

"Yes?" I said, turning my head. You wouldn't believe how awfully quiet this place was. Ok, I _love_ the forest, you know, the peace, the trees, the animals... But I've had enough of it by now, I really wanted to get out of here now. And nobody was talking, each of us too lost in our own thoughts so say something. There wasn't much to say either, nothing seemed appropriate.

"Are these wolves tracks?" she asked. She'd stopped walking and was staring at something in the snow. I stopped frozen for a moment; oh, shit, I'd completely forgotten about that with all these crazyness going on. I turned around for a moment; both Chris and Tom had stopped, and they both were waiting for my verdict, another worried look in their faces. Oh, jeez, can't they choose a different facial expression, for God's sake? I haven't seen someone smile in hours. Not even _Tom_!

I moved awkwardly towards Alex, praying that she would be wrong... I stood by her side, staring down at the marks in the snow.

"Yes, they are" I said through my theeth. I looked up and closed my eyes, trying to hear something and prayin that I wouldn't.

"What are you doing?" Alex asked.

"Trying to listen. These can't be too old" I said as I opened my eyes; there was nothing out there, at least not close, at least not _yet_ "cause if they were, more snow would have covered them by now"

"So you think they're close?" Chris asked as Tom and him slowly came closer. Poor them, they look exhausted. Tom has fallen asleep so fast lately. We all must have lost a lot of weight. I am _so_ eating chocolate muffins when we get out of here, fuck Alex and her diet, I want candy, _loads_ of them, I'm never refusing to eat mum's pasta ever again.

"I don't know, probably" I said "But they were going in a different direction. Unless they caught our smell or the smell of Dougie's blood, I don't think they would follow us. If they did, though, they would for sure hunt us down"

Tom swallowed rather loudly, Alex's face had again weird 'we-are-so-going-to-die' expression but Chris's tired expression didn't change

"We should go, then" he said.

"Indeed" I said.

Tom and I looked at each other for a moment; all these brought something new to worry about, another reason to think that we may probably not get out of here, not _all _of us. I couldn't imagine leaving without him, yet I didn't know if I could afford seeing him once we were safe, I didn't know if my heart was strong enough to love again. For too long I had been dead, truly dead, only my body went on, just for Alex's sake, and it was rather weird and uncomfortable to feel alive again. Now that Alex had her own reason to live and love, why should I keep on pretending to be alive? I could go back to being a ghost... Only that this time I could make another choice. Though Jason had wanted me to go through this, to feel alive again, to love again, I just wasn't sure I could, it still felt like cheating on him to me.

We kept walking for 2 hours -stopped for 5 minutes every 20 minutes so the boys' arms could have a break-, I was listening carefully to the forest's sounds, waiting to hear any sign of the wolves, but I caught a different sound and frozed in place. Tom must have seen me stopped so souddenly, I was several meters away from them.

"Vicky?" he called from behind me. I wished he hadn't talked "Is everythig ok?"

I looked up but I couldn't see the sky, there were far too many trees, far too many branches, far too much nature.

"Crap" I mumbled.

"Hey, was it that sound?" Alex asked. She must have been listening too.

"A helicopter" I said loud enough so the boys behind me could listen aswell. If only we'd been in a place with less trees... What were they thinking, anyway? Wasn't it obvious that there was no chance they could see from a helicopter with so much trees around? Were they just preteding to be looking for us or_ what_?

"Don't go running and shouting again, Alex" Chris said, half being just rude and half being serious. I turned my head to look at her, just to make sure she would listen to him; last thing we needed was an avalanche. She just rolled her eyes, her cheeks turning red, and crossed her arms over her chest. I think she mumbled something like _'I wasn't going to, douchebag'_ or something like that. I half-smiled, but then I felt so frustrated that I just sighed and sat in the cold ground. At least it had stopped snowing. _At least_. But the melted snow left everything else wet.

I did something stupid out of frustration; I quickly ran to the closest tree and started climbing up clumsily, the snow was melting over the branches, making it more harder for me to climb up as I kept tripping and slipping.

"It's not going to work!" Chris shouted from the ground "Climb down, now, Vicky. You know the snow is melting, it's dangerous!"

"Why dangerous?" Alex asked as I kept climbing up. I glanced down for a moment; well, I was going rather fast, I was already some meters up. Tom and Chris had put Dougie down on the ground and the three of them were staring up at me as they talked.

"The melting snow makes you slip, of course" Chris explained in a tone that I could tell was pissing Alex off. Those two just _love_ each other, jeez...

"So she could fall?" Tom choked.

"Yes" Chris said.

"Vicky, get your ass down here!" Alex shouted as she started climbing up. She was fast and more gracefull than me at this.

I kept climbing up, the top of the tree was several meters up, I wasn't even close, but I did was so meters up, around 6. My hands were wet and it was harder to hold on to a specific branch.

"Both of you, please, climb down!" Tom pleaded.

"Vicky, serousl-" Alex pleading was interrupted by a loud scream. I turned my head around so fast to try to spot her that I even hurt my neck, but I didn't care at the moment. Alex had slipped but luckily hadn't fallen, but that had been enough to scare her as she hugged a branch with both arms. Her scared face touched me. I looked up, hesitating, but then sighed and climbed down. The moment I trusted my right foot on the branch below me and let go the one over me, I regretted it. I slipped and quickly tried to hold on to something, but there was nothing but air. I felt backwards, right into nothingness, and just a second later my back hit a branch. It left me breathless. My friends below me gasped in horror, Alex's terrified shout filled the air. There was nothing they or I could do, I just kept falling... I rolled over unconditionally and hit another branch. I tried to hold on to it, but I was breathless and couldn't quite think. I rolled over again and felt. This time it was a little bit longer until I felt another branch -just seconds, though, but the difference was obvious-. I couldn't tell exactly when, but I hit my head to something hard and wet -another branch- and I did not lose consciousness, but that definitely left me a bit more stupid and I lost the control of my body. When I hit the very last branch before I landed on someone -Tom, I found out later, who catched me before I hit the ground-, my arm made a weird sound against the branch as my body felt over it and that definitely hurt as much as when I'd hit my head.

And, well, I was actually lucky that I kept falling over branches and not the ground at once... That would have probably killed me at once.

I gasped for air and that made me whole body hurt even more. Everything was confusing for moment, Alex kept shouting from someone near, I felt something warm running down my head and I definitely felt that cause I hadn't felt anything warm in days, Tom's arms shook me for a moment as he called my name, his eyes full of horror. I could barely hear his voice, despite the closeness.

Then I just closed my eyes, glad to know that unconsciousness was taking me now.


	27. If Only

**Hey girls, I wanted to let you know that I'm leaving on Wednesday night. I'll be gone to the beach with my 25 years old sister and her BFF, who's really cool, for four days (I'm coming back for school on Monday). It's going to be pretty cool I guess, my sis has a mind of a teenager cause she was kind (_really_, actually) of a nerdy when she was my age haha**

**Sooo I wil not be updating while I'm there. Sorry! I'll try to update as soon as I come back home and see if I can write something while I'm there on a notebook or something.**

**Massive thanks for all the reviews! I mean, I've got almost 80 reviews! How cool is _that_?**

**Enjoy and review.**

**p.s.: Why do guys want you when you no longer want them? Oh, darling, he's _way_ too late now.  
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**Tom's POV.**

"Vicky! Are you alright!?" I asked her as I held her in my arms. She didn't answer. She barely seem to be looking at me. I stared into her eyes, completely horrified, but her mind was somewhere far away from reality. Was she dying? Was she ok? How much in pain was she in right now? Could she hear me? Did she realize she was in my arms at all?

In just a few seconds, she closed her eyes without saying a word and never opened them again.**  
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"¡Victoria!" Alex piercing scream filled the air. She was still in the tree, just a few meters up.

Chris reached me in a second and kenl down in the ground by my side.

"Go help Alex climb down" Chris ordered me as calmly as he possibly could "And tell her to stop shouting or we'll get eaten by wolves pretty soon"

I looked down at Vicky, my heart pounding against my heart. I was in shock, I couldn't move, not_ away_ from her. Was Chris actually asking me to let her go?

"Tom!" he yelled at me, an annoyed look on his eyes, trying to get me to react "Give her to me! _Now_! I need to examine her"

I hesitated for a moment. Letting her go right now was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But I did it. I gently put her in his arms and stood up in a blink. Alex was merely threww meters up in the tree, climbing down slowly, watching carefully her every move. I stood right under her in the ground, Alez was going way too slow, she was making disasters with my nerves.

"Just jump, I'll catch you" I told her impatiently, I wanted to go back to Vicky.

Alex looked down at me, she didn't seem to keen on the idea... But she was as impatience as me right now.

"Pro-promise?" she mumbled, probably too scared to actually think this through.

"Promise" I told her without hesitation.

She sighed, closed her eyes -which was a very stupid thing to do, but whatever-, and let her body fall backwards. My arms caught her but my tired body gave in and we both fell to the ground, her body over mine. Alex quickly stood up and didn't even bother asking me if I was ok, she just stood up in a blink and ran to Vicky and Chris. Well, I couldn't blame her really, I would have probably done the same.

"Is she ok? Is she alive? She's unconscious! She's bleeding!" Alex said. Blood was falling down Vic's face from her head, somewhere under her hair. Chris was opening his backpack in a hurry and took his bottle of water.

"Alex, please, shut up for a second" he mumbled. She looked at him with anger.

"Come here" I told her softly and opened my arms for her. She remained me of my little sister. Alex sighed axiously and let me hold her.

I watched as Chris let some water fall ver Vicky's face, from where the blood was coming, reaped a long piece of fabric from his jacket, threw some water over it too, as if he was trying to clean it, then tied it around her head.

"It's not a deep cut" he said, probably knowing one of us was about ask something like that "As long was it doesn't get infected, it shouldn't be something to worry about" he cleaned the blood from her cheek with his forearm.

"Alex, you should turn away"

"No way" she said.

He sighed "Don't say I didn't warn you"

Then, without any further warning, he pulle from Vic's shoulder towards the ground with one hand, grabbed the wrist of the same arm with his other free hand and pulled towards the opposite side. Her arm made a weird sound and her elbow moved from its place. I hadn't noticed there was something wrong with it. Alex hid her face on my chest as her hands flew to cover her eyes.

"Told ya" Chris mumbled. I wasn't in the mood to try to stop their antagonism.

"What the hel was that about?" she asked, disgusted.

"Didn't you notice her forearm was completely out of place?" he said incredulously "She's lucky her elbow just move out of place and she didn't have any kind of bone fracture. _That _would have been a real problem"

"Yeah, _lucky_" I mumbled.

Chris removed her clothes a little bit to examine the rest of her body,Alex was always watching where his hands were, then put them on again. I'd actually thought about her body a few times, it seemed marvelous even under her big, winter clothes, but right now it seemed to unimportant, concerned filled my mind. Afortunately, she only had scratches, though she was still unconscious and she was probably -not to actually say_ obviously_- going to be under a lot of pain as soon as she recovered consciousness.

"She hit her head pretty badly" he said "She should wake up in a few hours. Meanwhile, we should go. Like Vic said, the wolves may be close and you've been screaming like a girl" he looked at Alex, an annoyed look in his face.

"I _am_ a girl" she mumbled and rolled her eyes, but her cheeks turned red.

"Whatever. Can you carry Dougie with Tom? Take my place?"

"I think so, for a while at least" she said, not sounding very sure.

"I'll carry Victoria. There was a rather usefull cave, perhaps an hour away from here. Make it two under our new situation"

"We're going back?" I said "We shouldn't, we should go on. We'll lose time"

"We need a place to rest, things have changed" Chris said.

I looked back at Dougie; his fever hand't stopped, we didn't have time to waste, but what else could we do?

"Ok, let's go" I mumbled.

After around 10 minutes (Chris went to find dry branches and put them around Vic's arm, then tied another piece of fabric around them, so she wouldn't move her elbow), Chris put Vic on his back and started walking by our side. Alex got tired fastly, she's tiny, but I knew she tried her best to keep her mouth shut and not complain. But, after what seemed a whole day instead of one and a half hour, we reached the stupid cave.

Alex rested her head on Dougie's chest and she layed down on the rocks by his side. Tat had to be uncomfortable. Yet again we were already used to it by now. She mumbled something like 'get better, love' and closed her eyes. Chris put Vicky in my arms very carefully and leaned against a big rock as he took a deep breath. He fell asleep fastly. Alex even breathing joined him shortly.

I sat down on the cold rocks and held Vicky closely to my chest across my legs. It was still early, the sun was barely starting to disappear behing the mountains, but all of us were so exhausted that it truly didn't matter what time it was. I couldn't manage to relax though, I just stared at Vicky's closed eyes for a long time. This place was a lot creepier when you felt so lonely.

The light was turning red, announcing the end of the day. It made Vicky's skin look so pretty. _She_ was so pretty. If only she loved me...


	28. Spread Hope

**I'm back!**

**Had a good time in the beach with my sis and her mate, though being there with a certain boy showed me I can not wait for a boy to change, life's too short, he's missed his change, so goodbye darling! Don't worry, I'm ok with it :) I'm even laughing at the moment while I talk to the most lovely boy on Earth :) And I'm tanned! _That_ is something new! :D  
**

**So sorry for the delay, I hope this won't have to happen again.**

**Now, girls, enjoy and review.**

**84 reviews! Aren't you guys awesome!?**

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**Vicky's POV.**

I wished I could have gone back to that blurry darkness, to my dreamless unconsciousness, instead of facing reality and the pain it brought along. Everything was so confusing, memories seemed so distant, like everything happened a zillion years ago. At first, I didn't open my eyes, just waited until consciousness kicked in completely. Someone had his or her arems around me, someone who I guessed was sleeping by the sound of that close, even breathing.

Slowly, I opened my eyes as I tried no to move a single inch of my body, knowing that would cause me anothing but _more _pain. Yes, it wqas Tom who was holding me close, just as I'd thought. A gently, kind of red light lit up his face as he slept peacefully, he looked so handsome, I could stare at him without fearing he would see me starting, I could learn every detail of his skin. The sun was starting to rise; how long had I been sleeping? How was it possible that I now was on a cave? Had Tom or someone else carried me all the way here? Well, it couldn't have been Alex _at all_, she's way too tiny, so it had to be either him or Christopher.

I moved my head slowly -my neck hurt so much I could barely keep myself from moaning- and stared at the pieces of wood tied around my elbw. What the hell-

'_Oh, dammit! Fuck!_' I shouted in my mind. _That _did hurt, Jesus Christ! My elbow seemed to be in fire! An indescribable pain spread from my elbow to my fingers and up to my shoulder every time I tried to move my elbow or my arm. I remembered hearing my arm make a weird noise when I fell, the memory seemed so distant.

As soon as I slightly raised my arm to examin a bit more, I regretted it. A torturing pain made me gasp and moan, I bit my lower lip to stop myself from shouting. Tom's eyes flew opened and he instinctively pulled me closer into his body. I closed my eyes and pressed my teeth even harder to my lip before I could wake up the rest of them with a cry of pain, Tom's hands felt awfully strong and painfull against my skin. He realized what he was doing to me, the pain he was accidentale putting me through, and stopped himself at once.

"Sorry!" he whispered urgently, his voice deep, his eyes still sleepy "Have you been awake for long?"

"No" I whispered, controlling the impulse of shouting to the top of my lungs.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. I hesitated; should I tell him I was drowning in pain or should I lie for his sake? My moment of doubt gave me away "It's _that _bad?" How strange, he hadn't known me for long, yet he knew so much about me, he could read me so easily...

I sighed; my back hurt too.

"That bad" I whispered.

He hesitated, then carefully and very slowly put a lock of my hair behing my ear, then caressed my cheek once. His cold hand felt amazingly nice for once. He never took his eyes away from me, it felt strange, _too_ intimate, though I didn't feel _wrong_.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better" he asked, his voice almost urgent again, yet also velvet, sweet. I smiled at him and his sweetness.

"Just do that again" I said.

"Do what?"

"Your hand. Can you place it in my cheek... Please?"

"Of course" he smiled back at me. Right there, in his eyes, I could see how much he cared about me. It was hard to see him as he stared at me that way and not be able to feel all that aswell.

His palm softly laid in my cheek and he caressed it slowly with his thumb.

"You really scared the hell out of me" he said after a while. I could here Alex breathing loudly somewhere close to us "Why is it that you girls can't stay calm for just five minutes?"

I half-smiled "I just had an impulse" I looked away, lost in thoughts "I've got to get Alex out of here. I can't let her down"

He softly took my face on his hands -which slightly hurt, but I showed so signs of being in pain- and turned my face towards his again.

"You're not going to let her down. Everything's going to be fine"

"Everything's getting worse by the minute" I had, a hint of desperation in my voice "Who knows how long Dougie has? Who knows if I've got any dangerous injuries-"

"Chris said you were just fine" he interrupted me.

"He's a pilot, what would _he_ know?" I said, breathing heavily "I hate thinking we may not make it. I hate thinking Alex may get hurt... All she ever did for me... And now it's _my_ fault she's here! It's my fault she's-"

"Vicky, stop!" he said, shacking me a little bit. It hurt, but my mind was bussy with other thoughts "Nothing good can come of thinking like this. Look, do you trust me?"

"Yeah, of course-" I said, confused; what did that have to do with what I was saying?

"Then trust me when I tell you we're going to be fine. I'm not letting anything else happen to Dougie. And I'll take care of Alex when you can't. And I'll take care of _you_. But, _please_, I need you to help me, don't lose your mind... Ok?" he looked at me gently, but I could see his own fears on his eyes; he was the last one who was staying calm, the last one who hadn't lost his mind yet, that only one who wasn't giving in to despetarion.

I took a deep breath, it made my ribs hurt.

"Ok" I mumbled "Sorry"

He smiled at me, his hands still on my cheeks. Suddenly something changed, something in his eyes... A decision had been made in his mind.

Oh, God, I know that look. Oh, no. He leaned forwards very slowly, doubting what he was about to do. Oh, jeez, I don't know if I'm ready for this! Am I ready for this? Am I ready to kiss him? I hadn't mage _my_ decision yet! I looked at him with horror as he closed his eyes.

I don't know if it was a bad or a good thing, but he suddenly leaned away as Alex spoke my name with a sleepy voice; she'd woken up. Should I be thankfull for the interruption or be annoyed? He wasn't surely smiling. He blushed and looked away.

"Oh, Vi, you're awake!" she said and rushed by my side. Tom carefully put me down, off his lap -every single movement hurt, I wondered how long this shit woud last- and into the ground. I felt inmediately colder without his arms around me.

"I am" as all I could say at the moment. I was still shocked.

"How are you feeling?" she knelt down by my side awkwardly, punching my arm by accident with hers, she probably didn't even notice, but the pain spread through my arm again.

"Carefull, Alex" Tom warned her.

"Oh, sorry" she said completely casual, her happyness overpowering anything else. Oh, God, how can she be so careless sometimes? "You scared the hell out of me! Don't ever disovey the boys again"

I smiled for her sake "Ok, Alex. I won't, I promise. How's Dougie this morning?"

"He's sweating, he's got fever" it was like her happyness disappeared instantaneously "Is he going to be alright?"

I looked at Tom, he was staring back at me. I could almost hear him asking me to stay calm, begging me to have hope.

I raised my arm, ignoring the pain as much as I could, holding back a loud moan, and grabbed her hand.

"We're going to be fine" I said. Tom ran his hand up and down my back for support once. Alex sighed and nodded, then put her arms around her knees. I looked at Tom once more, his face was just inches away from me. I think I blushed, I could feel the blood going up to my cheeks... The same question came to my mind as I caught him staring for just the shortest moment at my lips; was I ready to kiss him or not? I'd been so close, _we_'d been so close... I _had_ to make a choice.


	29. Girly Talk

**Hi there, girls. This chapter talks a little bit about sex. If anyone has a problem with that, or feels offended or annoyed in anyway, let me know. I just figured that since we're all teenagers (I'm on my way to be 17) and the characters are all older than 18, nobody would mind. If you do, just tell me and I won't touch the subject again. Remember you don't always have to say good things about the story, you should also add things like what you think is missing or whatever, you get it...**

**Anyway...**

**Enjoy and review.  
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**Vicky's POV.**

Very slowly, Tom grabbed my hands and pulled me up. I tried my best not to moan out of pain. It was time to go, time to get back to our thing; endless walking. I wonder how long I would be able to walk without starting to curse, my legs felt so weak and they were covered with violet and green bruises. There were _huge_, believe me.

"Are you ok?" he asked me without letting go my hands once I'd stood up, as if he didn't trusted my legs. In his mind I had to be some kind of porcelain doll; so breakable, so defenseless.

I stared at him for a moment in response.

"_Right_" he said, blushing "Stupid question"

I half-smiled to him "No, it's sweet. But you've got to stop worrying about me, I'm already in pain and there's nothing we can do about it"

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" he said, almost as if the thought hurt him.

"No, Tom, Dougie needs you more than I do"

"You _swear _you won't run away or do anything stupid?"

I giggled, probably for the first time in a couple of days.

"I swear"

He sighed, but nodded and turned away to pack his things.

"Girls" Chris said as he kept eating his blueberries for breakfast "Get ready, will you? We're leaving soon"

"Alex" I called softly, she turned around and raised her head without taking her hand off Dougie's cheek "Can we talk for a moment?"

"Sure" sje simply stared back at me.

"_Outise_" I said, pointing to the trees with my thumb.

She looked down at Dougie again, then back at me, misery in her eyes.

"It will only take five minutes" I said.

She sighed and stood up unwillingly. Chris turned his head around again.

"You're going out alone, ladies?" he said, a bit of worry in his syes. Tom looked at him, secretly begging him to stop us. As if he_ could_!

"Five minutes, Chris" I said, a bit annoyed; I knew he meant well, but sometimes I felt like this whole leader thing was getting to his head.

"Ok, be carefull please" he said. The warning behind his soft words was obvious; '_don't do anything stupid and risky_'.

Alex shadowed me outside, her hands on her pockets at usually, her tiny feet made so sound against the ground. I could understand her anxiaty, the pain; when Jason was going through his few last days of life, leaving him for even the shortest time seemed unbearable, even going to the bathroom made me nervous, you never knew if he would be still beathing when you came back. This had to be the same for her, specially since we didn't know how much long he had, how bad his injuries were.

When we were about a street away from the cave, I stopped and turned around. Alex stopped abruptly, almost bumping into me. She looked all around us nervously.

"Where's the cave?" she asked, a bit of panic in her voice.

"Relax," I said and almost rolled my eyes. Jeez, Tom's right, they freak out about_ everything _"we're close, I'm not lost"

"Ok" she didn't relax "So what did you want to talk about?"

I bit my lip.

"I've got no patience at all today, Vi" she said, moving her feet impatiently "Just split it out"

"Tom almost kissed me this morning"

So her reactions were the followings in this order:

1- shock; her jaw fell open, her eyes wide open aswell. She stared at me for a moment, completely frozen.

2- confusion. She made a weird expression with her eyebrows. That expression only lasted a second. She had to be thinking: '_almost?_'

3- joy and excitement. At first she couldn't talk, just started jumping in the same place, moving her arms wildly. Then she started shouting incomprehensible things (_this_ is exactly why I took her outside). After she was done with that, she started shouting something like '_Oh, my God, I'm so happy for you!_' but it was still hard to understand her. This was probably the period in which she was imagining how our kids would look like, maybe a new wedding dress, our house... She's got a huge, endless imagination, you know?

4- finally, she stopped, confusion in her face again.

"Wait, why _almost_?" she asked, turning her head to the side.

"When you woke up, he leaned away" I explained.

"Oh, dammit, I'm so sorry, Vic!"

"No, it's ok. I mean, maybe. I don't know!" I sighed, frustrated "This is why I needed to talk to you, to get his out of my system"

"I don't get it, you're _glad_ I interrupted you?" she said skeptically

"I think I am, because I'm still not sure I can do this"

"Vicky..." she used all her concentration to be serious as she grabbed my hands with hers and focused her eyes on mine "I understand you, honey, you know I do... But Tom seems to really adore you, and he could be great for you if you let him, he could make you _happy_ again. He's sweet, don't get me wrong but he's rich -and I'm only saying that to point out that he can take care of you!-, and smart, a bit of a nerd but you've always had a thing for nerds" I rolled my eyes, she smiled encouragingly, then her face lit up as a new idea seemed to cross her mind "Oh, I know! We should find out if he's good in bed!"

"Alex!" I gasped, though I had to admit this was all just a bit funny, like when Alex used to ask me questions about Jason and me. She's tough, but don't let her fool you, she's all about girly talk "I haven't kissed him, I _can't_ kiss him, and yet you _already_ want me to get under his pants!?"

"I'm asking Dougie when he wakes up! He has to know!"

"No, jeez, Alex! You can't ask people about that! Besides, guys don't talk about this stuff"

"Yeah, sure" she said ironically "That's what _they_ was _us_ to think! Boys are just as bad as women are **[A/N: so true]**. Hey, I wonder if Dougie's good at it! He must be, with that body he has!" she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, smiling to herself.

"Oh, not, stop _that_! Are you imagining the two of yuo together _that_ way!?" I said as my hands flew to my ears as if I could hear her thoughts. Thank God I couldnt!

"It's perfectly normal!" she said as she opened her eyes.

"At least don't do it in front of _me_!"

Her cheeks turned red though and I giggled. She sighed, suddenly all sight of fun gone. She placed one hand over my cheek "I wish you could look at yourself right now, Vic. You look so alive again. I miss this. I miss when you used to tease me for stuff like this"

"You mean 'cause you're a little pervert?"

"'m not, it's totally normal! Why can't I imagine my lover making love to me!?"

"Oh, Alex, too much information"

She took my hands again and repressed a smile as she tried to look serious.

"Honey, you're confused, but you're waking up from your zombie-like state. And Tom seems to be the reason. Take things slowly if you want, Tom's not going to rush you to anything, I'm certain about that, you don't have to ujump to bed like I'm planning to do with Dougie when we go home"

"Alex! Was that _necessary_!?"

"Sorry, I'm a bit distracted now"

"_No kidding_" I raised an eyebrow.

"Honey, you're alive once again. If Tom's really the reason, then you should hold on to him"

I sighed, trying to put my thoughts in order.

"Yes" I said, a bit more confident, trying to convince myself "Yes, you're right. I'll take things slowly with him. I mean, trying's not going to hurt anyone, is it?"

"Of course not!" she smiled.

"Come on, let's go back" I said and started heading to the cave.

"Hey, do you think Dougie's the kind of guy who would like to-"

"Oh, please, just _please_, don't finish _that_ question, Alex"


	30. Welcome Back

**Chapter 29 was my fave, reminds me of me and my friends. I miss you Vi! Though you're the crappiest friend, you've reviewed like twice! Love you still :D  
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**Enjoy and review.**

**P.D.: by the way, Harry, Danny and the rest of the people that were with them were rescued. I just thought it was kinda obvious since they'd been already found, but some of you have been asking to I just wanted to clear that out.  
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**Vicky's POV.**

"Oh, my God, I'm a perverd!" I thought as I stared at Tom's naked chest.

We'd been walking for quite a few houres now. We were approaching the bottom of the montain, that should be good; if someone lived around here, their house should be right at some place near here... Unless we're bloody unlucky and this is an uncivilized zone.

Alex had been walking by Dougie's side all the time as the boys carried him, wordless for once. I'd been afraid she may say something about sex in front of the guys, but she didn't.

A bird flew over us, it was rather big, and pooped over Tom in such way that it landed inside his jacket, over his shirt... Talking about _luck_... He'd shot Alex a killing look, almost annoyed when she'd said '_hey, that's good luck!_' rather cheerfully.

Everything was so misteriously... _convenient_.

They put Dougie down on the ground and Tom started taking off his clothes; first his jacket, then his shirt. I took this chance to let my legs rest and sat on the ground, just a couple of meters away from him, and looked up to look at him. Tom skind was quite pale nd he wasn't too muscular, but I wouldn't have liked that anyway. He looked perfect to me. So handsome. So desirable. Eating nothing but blueberries and all the hiking had done some pretty nice work with his body. His trousers were a little bit lower than they should, hanging a litte bit under his hip, leaving more skin uncovered. I guessed that was his style, just like Dougie's. I swallowed as I stared just a little bit higher from his boxers; I liked what I was seeing.

He threw some water over the dirty zone and tried to clean it as good as he possibly could, gently moving his hands through the fabric. He was a musician, he knew how to be gently with his hands, agile too.

I found myself thinking how it would feel to have those hands on my skin, softly caressing me, running up and down my back, my arms, my belly, my legs... As my eyes stayed locked on his stomach, I wondered what would have happened if we'd kissed, how it would have _felt_. Would it have been nice, passionate, tender...? What? I tried to imagine the situation, a shirtless Tom kissing me, holding me tightly, caressing me. Something warm spread through my chest as I swallowed again when the fantasy got more passionate; was that desire?

"You're thinking about _it_, aren't you?" Alex said with a glorious smile as she came to stand beside me. I blushed instantaneously and looked away from Tom.

"No, I wasn't" I mumbled and pretended to try to make my hair look better.

"Liar. You _so_ were" she keep smiling and I just rolled my eyes, trying to seem careless, but I certainly was kind of embarrased; how long had I been staring at him? He hadn't caught me staring, had he? Did Chris see me too? Was it _that _obvious that I was thinking about _this_ kind of stuff?

"Vicky, don¡t be embarrased!" she said "I told you it's natural. Men watch porn all the time, darling"

"I wasn't thinking about porn!"

She couldn't help herself and giggled "I know. You're not naughty enough"

I turned my face towards her, a bit touched by that last thing "Hey, I _can_ be naughty"

"_Sure_ you can" she grinned, holding back laughter. What's up with all that irony? I _can_!

"I've had a honeymoon!" I complained.

"I bet I'm _way_ more naughty than you are. You're too... Well, it's like... You think like my grandma, Vi" she finally said "_'a girl should only fully give herself to her husband'_" she said, mimicking her grandma's voice, I knew her.

"I had sex while still being underage!" I complained. I can not believe this! I can be wild!

"And then you _married_ the guy!" she smiled again, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll show you" I snapped at her "I can be naughty and... And... Sexy!..._ And_ wild!"

"_Sure_" she stood up, still smiling, and walked away.

I looked up, ready to follow her and complain again, but I realized Tom was wakling towards me. He was putting his shirt back on as he smiled at me. It was weird but now it was like I was seeing him in kind of a different way, though neither os uf had changed at all. I quickly glanced one last time at this stomach, tried hard not to blush and hurried to look away. I really couldn't help myself. I just wished he hadn't seen me.

"What was Alex laughing about?" he asked "Was she giving you a hard time?"

"No, she was just telling me about, hum... Dinner plans"

_Dinner plans_? Am I _serious_? I _am_ smart, was _that_ the best I could do? Jeez, this whole being-a-perverd thing really screws with your brain!

"Dinner plans?" he repeated confused.

"Hum, yeah... She was saying that we should go out tosome fancy restaurant when we get home"

"And why were you upset?" he wasn´t buying it.

"Bacause... Well, she said we should get some chinese food and she _always _forgets I'm allergic to sushi" I am so _not_ allergic to sushi!

"Isn't sushi japanese food?"

"Yes"

"But you said chinese food"

"Oh, did I?" I smiled nervously. Dammit, I _knew_ that!

"You did, yes. Anyway, it's such a shame, I love both chinese and japanese food" I do too! Oh, I hate lying "Hey, maybe we could go out for dinner sometime"

I blush, but a hint of guilt fills my chest. I forced myself to agree, knowing I'd hurt him if I said no, all my confident suddenly gone "Yeah, sure"

He seemed to notice my sudden change, though he couldn't have understood the reason. He knelt down in front of me quickly and examined my face quickly as he placed a hand on my cheek.

"Are you alright? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, not at all, I'm fine" I tried my best to looked relax and natural, then stood up "Come on, we should go"

The boys went back to their position and Alex came to stand by me again, the corner of her lips up; she was holding back laughter, I could tell. She looked at me once.

"Oh, just say what you've got to say!" I said and rolled my eyes as she put a hand over her mouth.

"Allergic to sushi? _Really_?" a little giggled came from the back of her throat "You're a _terrible_ liar"

"And _you_ are a bad influence"

"I'm just welcoming you to the real worl... Welcome back, darling"


	31. Forget Me

**I've been thinking about making sequel to my first story [Learning to Live] and 'I'll Remember You Always'. What do you think? There would be a little bit more of action in them, specially Learning to Live. That's the first fic I ever posted and finished and my favorite aswell, not to mention is the longest. I'd been thinking about writing a sequel for a long time and just yesterday I came up with an idea. So, what do you think? Have you read those stories?  
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**Enjoy and review.**

**Once again, doesn't matter I've said this a million times, thanks A LOT for all the reviews, you're amazing guys! We're getting close to one hundred reviews!  
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**Vicky's POV.**

Hours later, after walking and walking without finding anything -no houses or shacks or cabins or any sign of civilization, not even signs of the wolves, though that was good-, the sun finally started disappearing behing the mountains, the clear sky turning darker -not what we could totally see it really with all these trees-.

After eating dinner -blueberries, _surprise_!-, I awkwardly got to my feet and looked at Tom; this would be our first night together since he tried to kiss me and things had changed. He smiled at me, as always, and opened his arms for me. He was leaning against some rocks over the cold ground, no cave for us tonight. I sat on his lap, sliding my arms under his jacket, pulling myself closer to him. I rested my head on his shoulder, hiding my face on his neck. He put an arm around my back and the other one around my legs, making me smaller as I turned into a kind of a giant ball over him, like a child. I felt warmer like that, though I was still under a strong pain. I didn't moan for his sake and Alex's. They were both so worried.

It didn't take long for Alex to fall asleep, all curled up next to Dougie, their noses touching. They looked cute. Chris just put his hands on his pockets and put on his hood, then closed his eyes and silently fell asleep. He was kind of a loner, though he was never alone. I wondered if it was due to the reason that he had kind of strong feelings against Alex and he knew I adored her, and he alost knew that Tom adored _me_, we were all connected in some kind of way, except for _him_. It was stupid, but I think that was it.

Tom didn't fall asleep so fast. He kept humming to himself, I think he must have forgotten about me. I ear was pressed against his neck and so I felt every change in the melody and rhythm of the song. I couldn't manage to fall asleep, it was rather entertaining to listen to him. He repeated some parts over and over again, trying different tunes. I giggled and he stopped.

"Are you composing a song, Fletcher?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were awake. Am I bothering you?" he asked in a low voice, probably tring not to wake up the rest.

"No, not at all, I was just listening to you..." I said.

"Should I stop?"

"No, it's fine.

He kept humming for a little while, I wondered if he was caressing my back consciously or not, he seemed kind of lost in his own word. His music relaxed me. This must be why he's so famous; in just what seemed a few hours, he had put together what sounded like a very cool chorus and the rhythm was seriously catchy. I would have hummed along with him, but I was afraid I could have fucked up.

Out of the blue, he suddenly kissed my forehead. His lips were cold, and I guessed so were mine, but his breath against my skin was totally warm. It shot some kind of electricity through my body.

I looked at him without thinking, his face inches away from me.

"Sorry," he said, perhaps blushing; by now it was completely dark, only the moon was shinning above us like a lost lighthouse in the middle of the sea, and I could barely see his face "shouldn't I have done that?"

He's such a gentleman.

"No, it's fine... I just..." I hesitated. What the hell am I doing? I blame Alex for this "I'd just like to try something"

"Something like what?" he asked. He seemed to be as aware as I was about our proximity.

"Just..." I swallowed, my mind all messed up with a hundred different feelings; doubt, excitement, guilt, desire, nervousness, anxiety, and the list goes on and on... "Stay very, _very_ still"

Without even bothering carresing him or taking his hands or anything romantic, I leaned forwards so slowly that you may have thought I would never really do what I was thinking and ver, _very_ softly pressed my lips against his. They were cold, just as before. Ww froze like that for what seemed all night, he's breathing uneven, perhaps for the surprise, I couldn't tell, while I just tried to keep all thoughts out of my head or I'd go insane. After a while, Tom's hands were behind my ears, gently pressing my face closer into his, like we were close enough. Soon our innocent peck, this light frozen kiss, turned into a_ real_ kiss, more passionate, making my blood run faster through my veins, and also making all of my negative feelings even worse...

... Jason used to hold me like that when he kissed me...

Instinctively I pushed Tom away from me, my hands on his chest, pulling me backwards. He made no effor the keep on kissing me, and inmediately dropped his hands.

"Is something wrong?" he asked urgently.

"I just... I can't..." I said, then found myself yelling at him "I told you to stay still!"

"I'm sorry, I just thought-"

"No, apparently you _didn't_ think!"

"Vicky, I thought-"

"Just shut up!" I stood up in a blink, feeling lost in the darkness as soon as our bodies weren't touching.

"Come back, I'll let you sleep" he said.

"No, I can't. Please stay away from me"

I recieved no answer to that. Fuck. Thast must have hurt him.

"Is everything ok?" Chris' voice said from somewhere in the dark.

"Yes, go back to sleep" I said.

"_Yes, sir_" he mumbled.

I held back my tears. I felt like I was cheating. I felt like a traitor. I could't get Jason out of my mind. This was what he'd wanted me to do, what he'd _asked_ me to do, to love someone else some day and do all the stuff that that implied, including, obviously, kissing, though he hadn't gone into further details. He'd wanted me to to his but only for my sake, not for his, he would have never wanted to see me with somebody else.

I stumbled with something that caught my foot and felt to the ground, moaning when I hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" Tom asked from where he was.

"Just stay there" I said "Go to sleep, forget about me"

"_Forget_ about you? We're _stuck_ together here!"

"I know, I _know_! But we won't forever. Please, stay away from me. _Please_. Just forget about me."


	32. Advices

**Sorry for the long delay, I've been having some trouble with school.**

**Enjoy and review.**

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**Vicky's POV.**

You can bet it was awkard in the morning.

I'd laid in the ground last night and fell asleep. I was freaking freezing without Tom's protective arms around me. I woke up all curled up on the ground, Alex kicking me slightly with her left foot. Tom was in a corner with Chris and never looked up at me. I didn't dare looking at him anyway, at least not his face.

"He looks strangly calm" Alex told me from our own corner. She had a hand over Dougie's hair as she ate "It's even kind of disturbing... She he look upset?"

"Dunno, I guess, yes"

"Why? Did something happened last night? Is that why you slept in the ground?"

I raised an eyebrow in disbelief "You didn't hear anything? Seriously?"

"Dude, we've walked like... I dunno, that's math I can't even _do_! I sleep like a bear in winter. Come on now, tell me what happened"

"Well... Promise me you won't shout or get all wild"

"Like I ever do that!"

I simply stared at her for a moment, then she just rolled her eyes.

"Just tell me!" she said impatiently.

I got closer to her, ready to stop her coming insanity -I was 99% sure she wouldn't stay calm, I just _knew_ she wouldn't-.

"I kissed Tom last night" I told her in a low rush. She opened her eyes so much I thought they would pop out, she looked like the ugliest frog ever, it was seriously perturbable. After her shock slowly started to face away and a smile grew wider in her face, I hurried to put my hand over her mouth just when she was about to start screaming. I knew her so well it was almost alarming "I told you not to shout!"

She just kept smiling, my hand stil covering her mouth, waiting until she was back to being a normal, sane (or at least half-sane) person.

"Will you behave?" I asked her some minute later. She nodded energetically and I released her "Don't get too excited anyway, I pushed him away"

"What do you mean you pushed him away?" she said, her smiled fading slowly, her expression turning into confussion.

"I mean, I _pushed_ him _away_" I said again.

"I know what you meant!"

"Then why do you ask?"

"I meant _why_ did you push him away!"

"Jason kept coming to my mind the whole time. Maybe she's just not the one, maybe I don't care enough for him. Did you ever think that I could be useless for love now Jason's gone? What if we all only have one right person for each other?"

"You should have thought about that before! You shouldn't have kissed him if you weren't sure about it!"

"Are you _freaking_ kidding me? _You_ told me to kiss him" I hissed.

"And since _when_ do you listen to me? You never have before!"

"I _do _listen to you! You're my best friend"

"I'm you best friend who gives _horrible_ advices! _Everybody_ knows that! Even my _mum _ignores me! Seriously, Vi, I thought you were smarter than that"

"You shouldn't give adviced if you know the're crappy!"

"I would have never thought you would actually _listen_ to me!"

I sighed, a bit annoyed, and leaned my back against a rock. I fought back the urge to look at Tom. This was all so bloody uncomfortable.

Alex looked up at Tom, then quickly looked away; he must have met her eyes.

"He looks weird, Vic" she muttered "You must have done some damage with that boy last night"

"_Thanks_" Like I did't know that. I sighed once again. I never meant to hurt him, he was a good guy... Just not the right one for me. No wait, let me rephrase that; _I_ am not the right one for _him_. I'm already broken. I'm a song he can't learn to play cause the music sheets have been long lost "Do you think I should talk to him?"

Alex snapped her head in my way.

"Are you asking for an advice? Haven't you learn _anything_ at all!? There should be a global law tat forbids me to give adviced, seriously. Hey, can politicians do that?"

"No, Alex, I don't think they can do that" I sighed patiently. God, she really is like a kid sometimes, when she's not all fierce and wants to kick your butt. _Seriously_, where _the hell_ does those ideas come from!? Somebody _please_ explain it to me "Anyway... Focus, Alex"

"Sorry"

"I'm asking for your opinion, not an advice"

"They sound like the same thing to me"

"Jeez, they are not the same thing; I'm not ever asking you for an advice again, _believe me_"

"So you've learned the lesson, huh?"

"Alex... Will you please answer the question?" I just stared at her patiently.

"Sorry, I'll focus... Well, I think you're right, you should talk to him. You know, to apoligize."

I bit my lip, wishing she'd said it was useless to talk to him at this point. I didn't want to talk to him, I felt weird and it'd be the most uncomforatable and embarrasing situation ever.

"I would go now if I were you" Alex said while she put some more blueberries in her mouth. She ate without noticing, I think, just putting the food in he mouth like her legs moved forwards when she walked. I don't think she's ever going to eat something blue again after this... Well, not that there is much blue food in the world, right? "We're probably leaving soon and it's better to just get it done quickly"

"Is that an advice?" I narrowed my eyes.

She hesitated, looking at me for a moment as she stopped chewing "Let's say it's just a thought"

"Right..." I raised an eyebrow, then unwillingly stood up, meeting Tom's eyes inmediately. Both of us looked away quickly. Jeez, this is going to be one unpleasent conversation...


	33. Zombie

**I have a bruise bigger than a golf ball in my knee, not to mention all the scratches and the fact that I bit my tongue so badly I couldn't eat for a whole day; a girl stood up while I was kneeling down, her head forcing my jaw to close, my tongue in the middle of my teeth. Believe me, _that_ hurt. Not to mention the blood...**

**But, anyway, here I am, despite the fact that I should in fact be studying...**

**I am terribly sorry about the last delays.  
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**Enjoy and review.**

**Also, thank you very much for the reviews! 100 reviews!!!  
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**Vicky's POV.**

"Hum... Tom? Can we talk for a moment?" I forced myself to meet his eyes. He slowly looked up and, jeez, it was hard not to look away.

Both Chris and Alex were staring at us, poorly trying to pretend to stare at something in the woods.

Tom hesitated, but then just nodded silently and started following me toward the woods. I just wanted to start running and lose him, I couldn't even turn around. I had no idea what I was going to say, not exactly at least. I should have thought about this a little bit longer. Jeez, this is _really_ what happens when you listen to _anything_ Alex says?

"So...?" Tom said when we walked over 10 minutes without saying a word. I stopped and forced myself to turn around. He was staring at me patiently, his hands of his jean's pockets, a rather bored expression in his face, which was totally fake, of course, even a dumbass could tell that much "What did you want to talk about?"

"Hum... Well... I... I guess I should apologize for what happened last night. I mean, I wasn't thinking- I mean, I _was_ thinking but-"

"You don't have to do this, you know? I've been through this before" he said, his voice low.

"Really?" He's kissed widow before?

"Yes, loads of times actually. Seems like fame didn't help _me_ much."

I leaned my head to the side "Wait, I think I'm not following you. How many widows do you know?"

"What?" he raised as eyebrow, just as confused as me "No, I'm not talking about widows. You're the only I know... Expect for my grandma."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"Look, Vicky, I know I am not the handsome one in the band and I'm, well, kind of a nerd sometimes, so I get it, ok? Girls have rejected me since I can remember"

"No, wait, it's not like that-"

"You don't have to feel bad, I'm used to it"

"But I'm serious, I _do_ like you-"

"Just stop, alright? I like you, I thought you liked me too, and maybe you felt kind of bad cause there's rather big chance we're going to die here so you decided to give me a chance. Seriously, I get it, and it's fine. You don't have to apologize"

"You're wrong"

We stared at each other for a moment; I wished I could tell him it was me, but what was I supposed to say? '_It's not you, it's me_'? He wouldn't believe _that_, though it _was_, perhaps for the first time in history since this phrase was first used, the truth. I didn't know what to say, loads of feelings and thoughts running through my head so fast I couldn't make sense of any of them.

He was good at hiding his pain or frustration or whatever he was feeling, but his words were enough to show me who he had to be feeling. I can't believe he really thinks all those things he said. I _do_ think he's handsome! And I don't think he's kind of a nerd! And, anyway, I wouldn't mind if he was. He was... _Perfect_. In _so_ many ways.

It was killing me to see him his way. I may not be in love with him, but I certainly cared a lot for him. I cared enough that I even dared to kiss him, he'd woken me up from my constant missery, from my permanent dumbness. Just a few days with him had fixed the heart my family and Alex had tried to fix for _years_. It only took him some smiles and a bit of his sweetness to bring me back to life...

I stared at him for a moment.

Oh, my God, what the _hell_ am I doing!? When Doctor Frankestein gave life to the monster and the abandoned it, it all went wrong, it all became a complete disaster **[a/n: never read Frankestein, it's the most depressing book _ever_]**. Now I had life again, I couldn't be without him. I didn't want to. Sure, it would take me a while to get use to the idea of having life without Jason and Tom would never be able to replace him, nobody would, but... I could make an extra-space for him in my heart, couldn't I?

"Let's go back, ok?" he said slowly.

"Wait-" I said just as he was turning away. He stopped and raised his head to look at me again "Maybe- maybe I've been wrong. Maybe if you gave me some time-"

"Oh, _come on_" he said, suddenly annoyed "Quit the crap, Victoria. You don't have to feel pitty for me, alright?"

"I don't-"

"Then why is it then? Do you suddenly realized you love me?" he said with sarcasm. Well, I don't know if I _love _him, but yeah- "I've dated loads of girls, most of them only wanted the fame and the money... I would have never thought you were one of them"

"I am _not_! I do like you! And I _am_ really sorry about last night, I never meant to hurt you anyway, I should have-"

"Save it, ok? I'm a big boy, I'll be alright. It's not like it was a big deal, anyway, just a small crush. You don't have to worry about it anymore, I'm over the subject."

"Oh..." I said, perhaps too low for him to hear, my arms hanging lifeless, my heartbeat speeding up with disappointment, the conversation turning even awkward, at least for _me_. A small crush. '_You don't have to worry about it anymor_e_, I'm over the subject_'. My mind kept repeating over and over the words he'd just spoken "Oh, I see..." I swallowed and forced a smile "Then we're good?"

"Sure. Now let's go, Alex must be waiting for you" he said and turned around.

"Actually, it's the other way" I mumbled, poiting to the opposite side. He just nodded and started walking away.

I followed him without making noise. I bit my lip the whole way. Why did this hurt so much?

I am never, ever in my whole life going to listen to Alex.

Chris and Alex looked anxiously at us then looked away quickly, something about our faces must have been awkward to them. What _wasn't_ awkward today?

Ignoring Alex impatient eyes, I knelt down close to her, where my backpack was and pretended to be looking for something as I tried to pull myself together and stop myself from crying.

"Vi? What happened? What did he say?"

"Humm..." I swallowed again, still not meeting her eyes, and forced another smile "Everything's perfect"

"You two made up?" I could tell she was smiling, she was getting it all wrong.

"Sure. We're friends. Everything's back to normal" I said.

When she didn't answer, I quickly glanced at her; she had the most horrified and worried expression ever. As soon as she saw me staring, she looked away, and pretended to take care of Dougie.

"Oh, I see..." she said. God, she was a terrible actress "Cool"

"Yeah, cool"

**Alex's POV.**

'_Don't freak out, don't freak out_' I thought over and over again as I kept looking down, afraid I may burst out in tears in any moment.

'_Everything's back to normal_' she'd said. _Normal_. I know what that means! _Normal_ sucks! _Normal_'s evil! She was going back to being that horrible zombie-like, lifeless girl! After all the effort I'd made during all these years! After she finally woke up from her nightmare!

What did he say to her?

She did care for him, she wouldn't be this sad if she didn't.

What _the hell_ did he say to her!?

I glaced quickly at her, her face completely expressionless, her eyes lost. Oh, Jesus Christ, the zombie's back! It's already back!

I looked at Tom angrily, he had a distant expression too. '_Fix her!_' I wanted to yell at her '_Fix her again!_"

"VI?" I called softly. She simply looked at me, not even minding to answer, just waited for me to say something "Humm... Will you pass me my jacket?"

She slowly turned her head to the right, stared at my jacket for a moment, and then, with the same annoyingly slow speed I'd had to bear for years, she left the jacket in the grounf in front of me. I don't think I would be able to stand this twice. And, anyway, how could I be sure she would come back to being a normal person again?

Yes, I was right, she was the zombie again.

Once more, I'd lost my friend. But this time, how long would I have to wait until she was alive again?


	34. Up

**I've got so much to do I think I'm going to explode haha. At least I'm doing good at school but it's only been like only two or three months since we started so who _isn't_ great at it at this point?**

**Short chapter, I've got to go to the doctor (I've got a weird thing in my nose, may aswell go through surjery soon), piano class and handball practise. Busy day.  
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**Anywayyy, the end's coming soon.**

**Enjoy and review.**

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**Alex's POV - a few days later  
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With sorrow and worry, I turned around, unable to look at Vicky anymore. Her face was perfectly blank, absolutely expressionless. _Dead_. But it said so much more than a tear would... The contrast between the Vicky of that day before she'd kissed Tom and today's Vicky was extreme. Didn't Tom see her change? What had he said to her? Did he not _understand_ what her face showed, even when it was showing nothing at all?

Nobody had spoken in hours, I couldn't think of anything appropiate to say. Even Christopher seemed uncomfortable with the situation, all the silence... I didn't even have the strenght to piss him off.

And, on top of all that, I was still so worried I could explode any moment. Dougie had been unconscious for days. What if he never woke up again? I couldn't let myself think like that, but I've never been quite a believer and bad things always happen to me. How am I not supposed to freak out and lose faith if everything is falling apart around me? How am I supposed to be possitive if my boyfriend's days and my best friend is kind of already dead?

I sighed and looked at Dougie; his chest moved as he breathed, it seemed hard for him, but at least he was still holding on to life.

'_Keep your heart beating_' I thought '_Just keep your heart beating, Dougie..._'

A thousand times I'd wondered if he was in pain, if he was having nightmares, or if he was peacefully dreaming or at least was fully unconscious, so he could not feel nothing at all. It was nice to believe that last possibility cause it hurt _me_ to much to think he was in constant pain. I didn't dared looking at his leg anymore, Chris was taking care of it. He didnt seem to have the strenght to piss me off anymore too, we just exchanged worried looks from time to time, both of us wondering how long Dougie had.

I hated looking away from Dougie, afraid I might miss something, no matter how little it was, maybe a sign that he was conscious and then I would be able to tell him how much I loved him, but at the same time, sometimes it hurt so much to see him like that. I had to look away, at least from a while.

That's when I saw it. I froze. Then I ran.

"Hey, where the hell are you going now?" Chris called annoyed. I ignored him and ran just a few more meters, a warm feeling growing stronger in my chest as a smile approached my face.

"Foot prints!" I shouted cheerfully "Well, _shoes_, but whatever! We're closed to... _Someone_"

The three of them looked shocked for a moment -it was great to finally see a change in Vicky's impossibly calm face-, then joined me quickly.

"They're going up the mountain" Vi said "I'll take a chance and say there are about... Hum... Five sets of footprints."

"Should we follow them?" Tom asked.

"_Of course_ we should follow them!" I said.

"Actually..." Chris hesitated, all of our eyes on him "Well, they wolves are more likely to be up in the mountain. I say we're just a day or two away from the bottom of the mountain. We can't risk bumping into them now"

"But these people can help us. We don't know if Dougie has _another_ day!" my voice went up an octave.

"And they can't be far away" Vi said "or the footprints would have probably been covered with new snow by now."

"How about be vote?" I said "I say we follow them quickly, before they are erased."

"I say we keep heading down the moutain" Chris said.

I looked at Tom.

"I'm ok with both ideas. I mean, we could also find help down the mountain, right?"

"Vi?" she was my last hope. Dead as she seemed to be, I knew I was still there in her heart, I knew she still adored me almost more than anyone else, I knew she would still support me always.

"Up" she simply said and stared walking, leading our way.

Chris sighed.

"You'd better be right about this" he mumbled.

I swallowed; yes, I'd better be right, or I would take away another day from Dougie.


	35. Come Back

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**Amy: of course I am killing them hahaha.**

**Thanks for all the reviews, 105! Wow!  
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**Alex's POV - hours later  
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"We've got a problem" Vicky's dead voice announced. She was several meters ahead of us, leading us through the right way, following the little signs of the hikers we were trying to track down and find; by now new snow had covered the ground, therefore most footsteps had been erased by the so called '_wise_' nature.

"Now what?" Chris complained. Both of the boys seemed exhausted and out pilot was starting to lose his patience; so was I.

"Come and take a lot at this" she said.

I was the first one to reach her, followed closely by the boys. I couldn't be as tired at them, but I gave a damn, I was so tired I wanted to cry... I am so spending a whole week in a five stars hotel after this; the airline company can pay for it!

There was a cliff right in front of us, like a huge whole in the middle of the mountain, the other edge just meters away. The four of us stood just a meter away from the edge. You would think it was so deep you would see the center of the Earth, solid rocks in the end, covered with more snow and little bushes. Well, ok, I _may_ be overreacting just a little bit, but that's cause I am deeply and powefuly terrified of heights. I quickly stepped back and looked away, feeling a bit sick. Vicky looked at me with worried eyes; dead or alive, she would always care and worry about me.

"I'm ok" I mumbled. I was not. Once more look at the cliff and I would be sick.

"So?" Chris said impatiently "Are we done staring at the view? I kind of got bored with it after the first week, you know?"

"Watch _closely_" Vicky said, her tone annoyed too. Well, that's a good change, at least she can still _feel_, right?.

I didn't dare looking back, so I just focused in Dougie for a moment, keeping an eye on him. The boys just stared at the view, trying to find whatever they were supposed to be seeing. Soon Vicky gave up.

"There" she pointed, and I was so curious I turned around again. She was pointing at the a fallen, old tree -or what was left of it-. It had a bit of snow in the surface and it was large enough that it connected out edge with the other one. I felt like we were in a bad Indiana Jones movie with a not-so-cool-and-happy ending.

"_Lovely_" Chris said, evident sarcasm in his voice. Tom just waited for whatever explanation she had to give us so we could catch up with her brain.

"Stop it" Tom mumbled. He usually just got annoyed by our lack of courtesy, but we just ignored him "Now, what is it what we should be watching, Victoria?"

I glanced quickly at Vic from the corner of my eye, just to check she wasn't going to jump off the cliff. _Victoria_. A guy calls you by your full name for only some reasons. Some of them could be, for example: a) he wants to call your attention b) he just caught you in bed with someone else c) he's your teacher d) he's really pissed off or hurt. I think in this case we should go for the last one, but I'm not sure cause Vi has said nothing about their conversation in the woods and I didn't dare asking. Anyway, she didn't jump, she just looked as... Iintriguingly calm as the past few days.

"Don't you see the signs of footsteps? A small part there, the snow hasn't covered it yet" she said. I have no clue what she's talking about, I don't see a thing.

"Oh, yeah" Chris said, then he took a step back "You don't think they tried to cross, do you?"

She just pointed somewhere else, down the cliff. I had to look, I'm too bloody curious; there, laying over a bush, down in the ground, loads and loads of meters down the cliff, was a huge, dark backpack.

The four of us just stared at it for a moment, then I looked away.

"Ok, so let's do down again" I said. I knew what was going through her_ bloody_ crazy mind! She would make us cross the breaking cliff through the tree! She was suicidal!

"No, no, no" Chris said "We haven't come all this way up just to go _back _down!"

"So what's _your_ idea!?" I said.

"We cross" Vi said.

"Hell, no! I am not crossing!" I said, stepping away from them.

"Come on, it can't be that hard" Tom said, but I ain't no fool, I could see his own fear.

"I am _not _crossing! I _can't_!" I started shacking just as I imagined myself trying to cross the bloody covered in snow tree. No-freaking-way "Vi, you know I _can't_"

She sighed "Dougie can't cross anyway" she said.

"So what do we do?" Tom said, getting impatient. Just what we needed; the only sane member of the group was going moody too. _Great_.

"I say she stays here, we cross" Vicky said.

"We can't split up" Chris said "It's too dangerous. We can't leave her unprotected."

"Look, we can climb up a tree and take Dougie up too, away from the ground, away from danger, ok? All she needs to do is stay up there with him, just that. If we don't find anyone in, let's say 3 days, we come back for her" she said as if I wasn't standing right there "Unless you are too afraid of crossing. I can go on my own"

"You are so_ not_ going on yor own" I said horrified.

"Well, I think her plan's rather good." Chris said, then turned to face me "Look, we put Dougie up in the stretcher between two safe branches, you stay up there with him, never climb down. If we find help, we come back for you. If we don't, we come back anyway. We really need to find these people... For Dougie"

Fuck him, freaking manipulator! All he had to say was 'for Dougie' and I was in, and he _knew_ that!

I sighed, trying not to freak out... Then gave up so quickly I felt stupid.

"Ok, ok!" I looked anxiously at Vi; was I able to let her go, even if it was for Dougie's greater good? Suddenly I felt like crying "Let's climd up then"

"Ok" Tom said "Chris, you go first. Victoria, stay under us just in case we need help"

_Victoria_ again. Is he doing it on porpuse or _what_?

She just nodded, never looking up at him. While the boys got ready, I hurried to her side and took her hand. I wasn't sure I could bear this without going insane.

"Vi..." I mumbled "Vi, please take care" I held back my tears, feeling even more stupid, like I was talking to a statue. But, to my surprise, the effect Tom had had in her must not have totally gone away yet, and so she smiled kindly at me, sweetness in her eyes, looking at me like she was looking at her own younger sister, alive once again, just for a few minutes at least.

"It's going to be ok, silly. When have I ever failed you?"

I wanted to say '_when you died again_', but that would be completely out of place and, besides that, she'd never failed me.

"Never" I said.

"And I promise you I won't fail you this time either. I'll come back, we'll meet again soon"

"Do you _promise_ me you'll come back?" I didn't know if she understood the double meaning of my words; right after Jason died, I never left Vicky's side, I was too afraid she would do something stupid, too afraid she would... Well, you know... _Kill_ herself. She wasn't like that, but when things change so much, they make people do stuff they would have never thought they'd do. And now she was back to being dead... How could I make sure she wouldn't do something stupid?

"I promise"


	36. My Word

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**Amy: OMG no I made a mistake last time! I meant: Of course I am NOT killing them all!!  
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**Alex's POV**

I spent the whole night crying, I couldn't sleep. I felt so lonely. Dougie's soft breathing wasn't enough to keep me from hearing all the scary noises of the woods. This was far worse than a nightmare. This _was_ a nightmare**. **I tried to keep frightening imaganes off my mind, but sometimes I just couldn't control my imagination. I just could picture a werewolf appearing out of the blue_ so_ easily, you could almost believe that kind of stuff in a place like this, when you're on your own -right now, Dougie just doesn't count as company-. I was curled up in the branch, my back against the tree, trembling, a hand over Dougie's throat, always making sure his heart was still beating. That's another contributing factor for my lack of rest; I just could not go to sleep knowing that he would be left unprotected and that, if something were to happen to him, it'd be only my fault. I wouldn't be able to live with that. I need to be awake to be able to help him.

By the time the sun started to rise, the colors of the forest changing from deep dark to lighter shades of gray, the sky turning red slowly, my eyes and cheeks were so irritated that I barely dared moving my face; sometimes, when people cry, their eyes feel irritated afterwards. Add really cold weather to that, the frozen breeze slapping my face all the time, drying the tears against my skin in a non-pleasant way.

It was the worst night of my life. The scariest.

I couldn't stop looking towards the cliff -though it made me kinda dizzy, faith wanted me to be used to trees luckyly-, looking for any sign of Vicky, but neither she or one of the guys ever appeared.

Somewhere between, well, let's say 8 am and midday -I couldn't be sure, but after so many days here, I could kind of tell what time it was depending of the color of the sky, it was easier in the morning, and where the sun was too-, I heard a helicopter. I wanted to climb down and tried to follow its way; wherever it was going, there would be people, I wanted to have something to do, doing nothing was going to drive me nuts. But I knew perfectly well that that was out of the question; 1) I could _not _and would _not_ by _any_ circumstances leave Dougie alone, the separation would be too hard, not to mention insanely stupid 2) _if_ I was stupid enough to leave Dougie, I would _never_ be able to find my way back to this tree 3) _if_ I left and the others ones came back, they would probably think the mean werewolf from my imagination had eaten me 4) **no way in hell** I'm walking alone in the woods, not a chance baby.

So I just sat there, feeling so miserably I wanted to go on crying, but my skin had already had too much. I just waited and waited, but Vicky never came...

But someone else came...

In just a few hours the sun would be completely gone, so I was surprised to see people. It was a big group, seven men with shutguns, boots and uniforms -for a moment I thought I was in a really bad movie about war and was so afraid of those people that I even held my breath-. I didn't know what to do, they coulnd't see me and were walking away, they were already several meters away, I would lose sight of them in any moment; '_scream for help!_' a voice in my head told me, but damn I couldn't take my eyes off their shutguns.

"Christopher Trembley!" one of them shouted "Is any body there?"

'_Oh, my God_' I thought. They were looking for the pilot! They were looking for _us_!

"Those people must be already dead" one of them said "I mean, it's been like _what_, two weeks since the accident? No way the could have survived without food, water and clothes"

"We've been over this, Jake, we are _not_ going to stop" the one in the front said.

As my heartbeat started speeding up, I looked at Dougie for a moment.

"I'll be right back, baby, you'll be alright" I said and started climbing down so fast I tripped and fell a couple of meters. I fell over the cold ground covered in snow and laid there for a moment, breathless.

'_Shit, that hurt_'

"There!" one of the men shouted like he'd seen a ghost and ran in my way. He knelt down by my side and lifted me up. I stared at him for a moment, a bit shock. Wow, I _flew_ for a moment, jeez "Miss! Miss, are you alright? Miss?"

"The tree" I said anxiously, looking up. He followed my eyes and saw Dougie.

"Patrick, Adam and Ben, climb up. Bill, call the helicopter" he ordered in a very leader-tone. They asked no questions. The two other guys left just stood by our side.

"Miss, are you alright?" he asked me.

"Yes, I think" I said.

"She fell pretty bad" the one standing said, examining me with his eyes "She may have a concussion"

"I'm fine" I said annoyed "It's him you've got to worry about. He got bitten by a wolf some days ago"

"Damn, those wolves are out of control..." the other one mumbled angrily.

"Miss, will you tell me your name please?"

"Alex. I was in the plane. About time you found us..." ok, not the best way to be greatfull, but, _come on_! What took you so long!?

About an hour later, the helicopter arrived. Between the men there, there was a doctor. He examined Dougie's injury for a while and when we took out a needle, I had to look away.

"It's looks bad" he'd said "But you managed to keep it rather clean. If you hadn't, he could have probably died of an infection"

"Is he going to be ok?"

"The unconsciousness is not a good sign," no kidding, Sherlock "and it's too soon for a diagnostic, but I say he's got a chance of getting better soon"

They put Dougie in the helicopter, then carried me inside too. I grabbed Dougie's hand the whole time.

"Wait" I said alarmed when they helicopter started lifting up "We can't go. The others aren't back yet"

"The others?" one who I think was Bill asked.

"Yes, there are three more out there. The pilot of the plane, my friend Vicky and Tom. We can't leave without them"

"Look, your partner needs help, I promise you we'll come back for them"

"No, I'm not leaving without them!" I got up, as if I dared jumping off the helicopter. Yeah, _right_, like I _would_. Three of them quickly pulled me down to my seat again.

"Daniel, go down again" the one who'd helped me in the first place said to the pilot.

"Oh, come on, it's nearly completely dark" one of them complained.

"Which is why we should hurried even more."

I smiled at him, so gratefully I couldn't even speak.

"I want to go with you" I said.

"No, you stay, he needs you" he looked at Dougie, a bit worried.

I anxiously looked at him again; could I wait in a warm place, in civilization again, without Vicky?

"Don't worry, we won't come back without them, kiddo"

_Kiddo. _How old did he think I was? Anyway, I liked him. I smiled again, ignoring the other men who were giving me annoyed looks.

"You've got my word" he said and disappeared into the woods again with the others.


	37. Stuck

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**Vicky's POV**

It was kind of weird being back to this... _Nothingness_... After feeling so strangely alived again. The new emptyness I created to protect myself feels disturbed, _wrong_, like the lines that sorround me, keeping me from feeling anything, keeping me from getting hurt are so thin they could break in any moment, so easily.

Tom was looking as lovely as usual, though his face didn't have that same happyness mixed with excitement it usually had, that expression that made him look so adorable and beautiful. He didn't quite look like the Tom I knew now, but he was still the boy I had to stop adoring for my own good.

The signs of people were completely gone, like they had vanished into thin air.

"Or maybe the helicopter picked them up. That's how rescue teams work" Chris had said.

Great, that's just _great_! We'd spent a whole day following nothing cause they were already gone. _Awesome_.

"And didn't you think about saying something a few _hours_ before?" Tom said.

"I just thought about it, sorry" he mumbled.

I sighed and stopped.

"We should go back then. Alex must be freaking out" my poor friend. If we gave her just one more thing to worry about, she would explode, seriously. Mentally, though, of course. I knew she had to be worrying a lot about me, about seeing me like this again, but I needed to protect myself to be able to protect her.

Christopher sighed "Told you it was a waste of time" he mumbled.

"Complaining won't help" Tom said. This was the most productive and longer conversation the three of us had had so far.

The boys had already started walking back towards the same path we'd come from, following out own footsteps, when, from the corner of my eye, just by chance, I saw a small wolf staring back at me in the distance. I froze. Instinctively, I leaned fowards, but without moving my feet so I wouldn't alarm the wolf, and reached out to grab Tom's arm. I let him go as soon as I realized what I was doing; protecting him instead of protecting myself.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice weird. I couldn't tell the feeling behind it.

"Wolf" I said. Chris turned around faster than a lightning "Climb up a tree"

Tom and I were the closest to each other. We both hurried up the same tree while Chris climbed up another one that was just a few meters away. His backpack fell on his way up.

"Damn" he complained. And then they say _Alex_ complains a lot! Our dear pilot's attitude has changed since the accident. He was about to climb down but I stopped him.

"No! Stay where you are, Chris" I yelled at him.

"Oh, come on, it was one little wolf" he said as he kept climbing down.

"I'll go for him" Tom said.

I looked down in horror as Tom climbed down awkwardly; he had no experience, I can tell, he's so slow. I wanted to hold him in my arms, to protect him and never let him go, but it was like I was trying to hold sand on my hands and it was slipping away so easily. I had to take this feelings away from me, stop caring about him, but you can not always tell your heart what to think or feel, can you? It's so... Annoying!

"Tom-" I choked, my voice too low for him to hear.

I looked up as I heard Chris screaming and saw two big and fierce wolves standing on their hind legs, making threating sounds and trying to reach him with their mouths. Chris was climbing back up quickly. I wanted to say 'I told you so', but instead I was busy pulling Tom up; I could take care of the 'forgetting-about-him' part once we were out of here and he was safe.

"Stay where you are!" I yelled at Christopher "And _obey_ me, dammit!"

"Jeez, where did those come from!?" Tom asked as he leaned against the free, standing on a big branch by my side.

"They are fast and _very_ intelligent. Do not underestimate them. Just because they are animals, it doesn't mean they are stupid"

For just a few minutes we watched as the animals started to calm down, but they did not leave; one more wolf joined the two others and they laid down on the ground, all next to each other, just a few meters away from Chris' tree. Oh, jeez, this is a problem. Big time.

"What do we do?" Chris asked from his tree. He had a frustrated look.

"I don't know." I said.

"You _don't know_?" he repeated.

"Hey, I'm not a survival manual, ok? I just know stuff"

"Just tell him something so he can follow an order, I think that could calm him down" Tom whispered without looking at me.

"Well... I guess we should wait" I said loud enough so Chris could hear too.

"Wait for what?"

"I don't know! Just wait!"

I sat in the branch I was standing and sighed; this just couldn't get any worse.

I took off my backpack and carefully balanced it on one branch. I didn't dare looking up to see what Tom was doing and desperately needed to have something in my hands and be busy with it. At least walking gave me something to think about. Waiting -and now _just _waiting, but waiting for _nothing_ because you have no idea what you're waiting for- wasn't the best thing for me to do now. It wasn't the most convinient time to be stuck in a tree with Tom.

How long would we be here, anyway? How long it be before the wolves got tired of waiting and they left? And, even if they did leave, climbing down would be very risky; they could simply hide and attack us once we think they're gone.

I should have never left Alex alone, she had no idea how to survive on her own, she must be going nuts.

Suddenly I felt like crying, everything was falling down into pieces again.

Oh, God, what have I done?


	38. I'm Not Leaving You

**I'm so sick I think I could drown while coughing. Anyway, I've got exams from Monday to Friday, the whole freaking week, freaking awesome. (I should be studying right now)  
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** I'll try to come and update as soon as possible, girls I am really ashamed for my delays, it's not how I work. Anyway, the next update will be the last of this story.  
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**Enjoy and review.**

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**Vicky's POV**

We spent that night and they whole following day stuck in the trees. Chris didn't ever stop complaining, he was hungry and cold, not to mention uncomfortable; his clothes and food were in his backpack, which was still laying in the ground. Tom and I only had Tom's backpack, mine had fallen to the ground during the first night, the wolves ripped it into a thousand pieces like they'd do with us if we dared climbing down. We were still not talking to each other, just a few 'yes' and 'no' when one of us asked something, and things were getting really awkward.

I would climb down and murder Chris if he dared complaining about something else.

All I could think of was Alex. I could picture her crying her heart out, thinking we're dead or something. I'd told her to give us three days and then we would come back, but I knew her too well. God, it'd been a mistake to leave her there alone -Dougie didn't truly count as company-. I just hope she doesn't decide to come, I'm strongly counting in her love for him, trying to believe she loves him too much to leave him alone. And, truly, that'd be very stupid, I don't think she's capable of that. Jeez, if there's a God, please don't let her come for us.

The sun was rising above us and when I woke up, first thing I saw was Chris just three meters away from the ground.

"What the hell-" my voice was deep and rough, and he didn't hear me. I cleared my throat and shook Tom's shoulder. He woke up alarmed and looked around confused "Chris! Climb up now!"

"The wolves are gone" he said as he continued to climb down slowly.

"Dammit, Chris, climb up" I said as I myself started climbing down. This was it, he needed to get his ass kicked.

"Hey, wait, where are you going?" Tom said as he followed me.

"_Someone_ needs to learn a lesson"

"Both of you stop. Come on, guys, don't be childish"

Chris jumped to the floor when he was only a meter away from the ground, I was just two meters away from the ground and was ready to jump too. He walked towards his backpack and smiled proudly.

"See? No danger, miss"

"You little, freaking-"

Suddenly Tom grabbed me by my arms and pulled me up with such strength that it hurt my skin. Confused, I looked up at his horrified face.

"Chris, climb up _now_!" Tom keep pulling me up and I just fought against his will. I followed his eyes and saw two rather big wolves running towads Chris, another two behind them. I gasped; they'd been waiting, they are freaking intelligent.

"Chris!" I shouted in horror and let Tom pull me up. My injuries from the day I fell from the tree hurt a lot as Tom pressed his hands around my arm. I wanted to scream.

Chris quickly run towards his tree again, but as he was climbing up the second branch, one of the wolves jumped and locked his jaw around his ankle, pulling him down to the ground.

"No!" I screamed with such strenght and horror that it hurt my throat. Tom pulled me even closer to him and turned my body around.

"Don't look!" he said. I pushed him away and he tripped, then fall a few meters, landing in a branch just a few meters over the ground. One of the smaller wolves inmediately ran towards him.

"No!" I started climbing down so fast I should have fallen but I didn't. The moment the wolf caught Tom's forearm, I kicked him in the face as hard as I could. He freed Tom, who cried out in pain, and I pulled him up quickly "Tom, hurry up!"

He handled the pain for a moment and climbed up quickly so we were high enough to be safe. I heard Chris screamed and turned around, but Tom locked his arms around me again and turned my body around to face him.

"No, don't look, don't look!" he said as Chris' screams filled the hair. I struggled to be free "We can't help him, we can't! Don't look!" He hid his face on my hair as tears fell down my cheek.

Three hours later, I was still in Tom's arms. Neither of us had moved an inche, both still shocked, both still horrified. I could hear the wolves in the ground, but I tried to ignore them, I think they were sleeping now. From time to time, Tom would press his fingers against my back. I wondered if he'd saw what they'd done to Chris... I didn't. I would not be able to sleep again if I had.

Everything was suck so messed up. My shirt was covered with Tom's blood. We were going to die here.

"Let me see that" I said. He leaned backwards, away from me. I gently grabbed his left arm and examined the injury; it was bad, really really bad. I felt sick. I'm surprised he hasn't been screaming or crying. I had to look away as I took off my sweater and tied it around his arm. I tried not to show how cold I was.

"They are not going to live, are they?" Tom said in a dead whisper, like everything had already finished. It felt that way.

"We'll have to wait for help" I said.

"Help? We've waited for help for like, what, _three_ weeks? We can't just sit here anymore, we'll starve, we barely have blueberries for four more meals"

"Tom, this is the only choice we have"

"No, it's not. I've got... a plan"

I had a bad feeling about this from the begining. I don't think I can handle anything else right now.

"I'm listening" I said.

"Look, I'm already hurt. My injury can get infected so easily, we've got no water, almost no food..."

I just waited, guessing where all this was going, but I couldn't believe he could actually think of something like that. I felt like there was something stuck on my throat.

"I can climb down... They'll smell my blood and follow me, they won't hesitate. Once they are focused on me, you will be able to run"

We stared into each other eyes; his were severe, mine must have shown how horrified I was by this idea. Is that what he's been thinking about this whole time?

"What- Tom- How could you even _think _of that?" I said, slightly raising my voice.

"One of us has to make the sacrifice or we'll both die here"

"Then let it be _me_! I've got nothing to lose. Alex already think of me as dead, I know she does, I can see it in her eyes. You've got a whole life ahead"

"No!" his face was such as horrified as mine.

"Tom, it's more rational"

"No!" he seemed so chok and was unconsciously moving fowards. He grabbed my shoulders softly "Don't you _dare_ do that to me!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I can't lose you, not twice"

"Lose me?" What's going on?

"Vicky... If I'm going to do this, you need to know"

"I just moved my head from side to side once, completely lost.

"What I told you that day, after we kissed... I was lying. And you believed me so easily! But you should know how I truly feel, I don't want to die with regrets" I flinched at the word '_die_' and didn't even dare thinking about such a situation "Victoria, I love you. It's ridiculous, we barely know each other, but personally I think that's the beauty of it"

"Why, then?" I asked, my mind seemed to be stuck, unable to fuction properly "Why did you lie?"

"Because it hurts to be rejeacted... _Again_" he looked at me for a moment, then looked down, his eyes sad and embarrased.

It took me a momento to realize my mind wasn't playing tricks on me, to understand what he was saying. He wanted me? He _loved_ me?

Slowly I reached fowards to touch his face. Gently I raised it and leaned forwards to kiss him. The kiss seemed eternal. He leaned even closer to me, pressing his lips even more tightly against mine. He ended the kiss to quickly.

"I need you to live" he said.

"Tom, stop, please-"

"Vi, my injury-"

"Stop! You can't drop a bomb like that and then walk away!" my eyes were filled with tears, I couldn't handle this "You can't die"

"Look at my arm... I'm already dying"

He was faster than me and quickly started climbing down.

"No, wait!" I followed him.

"When they follow me, you run" he said without stopping.

"Tom, for God's sake, stop!"

He silently jumped to the floor, carefully starting at the wolves who, somehow, where still sleeping. They must have been watching us all night, maybe. My heart was beating so fast it almost hurt.

"Tom-" I chocked as I jumped to the ground. I was around five mieters away from the ground so I didn't fall as gracefully as he did. In fact, I landed on my knees and it hurt.

"What are you doing?" he whispered urgently as he reached me and helped me up with his good arm.

"What are _you_ doing? Climb back up, dammit" I whispered back, glancing nervously at the wolves.

"I'm trying to save you" he said as he pulled me backwards, like _that_ would make me safe.

"Tom, if you're gone, there will be nothing else for me, I'll _be_ already dead"

"Before leaving, I promised Alex I'd do everything I had to to protect you. I'm trying to keep my promise"

"I don't want you to keep your freaking promise, for God's sake, Tom!" I said a little too loud. Our heads turned around as one of the wolves made a weird sound, raising its head in our direction. My heart skipped a beat.

Tom hid me behind him and I took his hand; oh, God, we're so screw.

"I love you" I whispered.

"Don't you dare- don't say goodbye" he said.

He grabbed my hand and I couldn't help feeling this was the end. I wasn't going to leave him and he wasn't leaving me either. I was just sorry Alex would be alone now. Would she be ok?

A threating, loud sound came from the back of the throat of the wolf and both Tom and I stepped back. It moved forwards. the three other wolves waking up aswell.

"Run" he told me.

"Never" I said "I'm not leaving you"

The wolves moved forwards as we moved backwards, Tom's hands tightly holding mine. This was it, then. I watched as they got ready, leaning backwards to then jump forwards. I closed my eyes.

I opened my eyes confused when nothing happened and gunshots filled the hair. Tom put his arms around me protectively, but I saw several men in uniforms shooting the wolves, killing them all. I couldn't believe it.

I felt sick again and couldn't feel my legs; this was all way too much for one day.

"Vi?" Tom asked alarmed when I collapsed in his arms.

"Are you people part of the crew of the plane that fell?" one of the men asked.

"Yes, yes, we are" he said as he held me with his good arm. The relief in his voice was almost tangible. He turned to me "You heard that? We're safe"

I took a deep breath, trying to think. I'm alive. _We're_ alive.

"Alex-" I said.

"Yeah, we found her and her mate" another men said "They're ok, miss"

"You're arm-" I turned to Tom again. He put me down on the ground and knelt by my side.

"Vi, breath. I'm going to be fine, it's over, ok? Just breath. I'm here, I'm with you"

I nodded and moved closed to him. They started talking, making plans, but I didn't listen. I just closed my eyes and let Tom hold me. I kind of couldn't believe it was finally over, I felt dizzy.

Only when I felt Tom's soft lips against my forehead I knew it; I was safe.


	39. Goodbye

**Here it is, the end!**

**I've got some serious crap going on at school, but I believe this Saturday I'll be updating the new story. See more at the end.**

**Enjoy and review.**

**Thanks for all the reviews, you've been great girls :)  
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**Vicky's POV**

"Vi..." Alex yelled anxiously from the car "Pregnant woman over here has to pee, Vi. _Seriously_"

"You _always_ have to pee" I heard Danny say as he giggled and I couldn't help laughing. Alex slapped him on the back of his head. He just kept smiling.

"I'll be with you in a minute" I said as I turned around again. She was leaning against the car, her belly huge behind her dress. Dougie was holding her hand, the other one if his pocket, looking just as young and careless as always, even after six years, even after everything we've all been through. Would he ever change? I hope he doesn't, I hope things never change. I've never seen Alex so happy, though she still complains about absolutely everything; she _always_ has, she _always_ will. Dougie just finds it funny. Danny always bothers her, complaining about the opposite thing she complains about, even if he doesn't agrre with what he's saying, just to piss her off. Harry just ignores them or laughs; he has to be the more mature in the group. After me, of course. -Kidding, I'm not too egocentric-.

Both Alex and Danny had had a hard time on the plain back to New Zeland. I guess Danny's injuries were more mental than physical after all, and Alex insisted on coming though she was scared to death; she didn't want to let me do this alone. Harry and Tom had been very supportive with both of them, Dougie just tried not to freak out himself. I loved flying, nothing would take that away from me.

I turned around again as Tom squeeze my hand a little bit.

"Are you ok?" he whispered.

"I'm fine" I smiled at him. Thruth is, this is still hard; my injuries, my broken heart, would never be _completely_ healed, but at least I wasn't bleeding any more, if you know what I mean... Tom was the most powerfull reason for that, my cure.

"I can drive them back to the hotel, if you want more time" he said "Alex will complain again in about... 5 minutes"

I giggled "I know. Don't worry, it'll only take a minute. I just want to explain myself to him"

He nodded. I couldn't understand how he wasn't jealous; I'd dragged them all again to New Zeland just to visit my husband's grave. Tom was just amazing, eveything a woman could ever ask for; lovely, handsome, successfull, sweet... And he was _mine_. It didn't make sense, but I was still gratefull and I wasn't going to let him go. _Ever_.

I knelt down and put the rose on the ground next to Jason's grave. I could almost feel him touching my skin for support, see him smiling at me, telling me it was ok. This is, after all, what he had wished.

"Could you give me a minute, please?" I asked softly as I stood up again.

"Sure" he said. I squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek; perhaps he _was _slightly jealous, but hid it for the greater good.

"I love you" I said.

"As I love you"

I followed him with my eyes as he reached the others; Harry put a hand on his shoulder and Tom nodded. He was alright. After all, it wasn't like I could dump him for Jason and, though my feelings for him would always be strong, my new feelings for Tom -not so knew though, after years- would not change, he knew that well.

I knelt down again and touched Jason's grave with my fingertips, then took a deep breath.

"Hey, babe" I said "How's my favorite angel doing?"

I got no answer, of course, I never would, and it was time to accept that. Finally, I could.

"This is the last time I'll come, Jason" I said "It doesn't mean I don't love you anymore -I always will-, and it doesn't mean I'm changing you for Tom. He just needs me to love him the way I loved you, so it's time, honey... I've got to let you go. I would have never thought you would be right after all" I laughed with sadness.

"I don't mean to be insensible, but I _really_ have to pee, Vi!" Alex shouted.

"Alright! Just five minutes!" I said and turned around again "She's 7 months pregnant. It's a boy, you know? They're going to call him Isaac Jason Poynter, he's second name after you of course, darling. Dougie asked her to marry her but she said she wanted to wait until she wasn't huge anymore. She pretends she doesn't want to be the regular housewife, but she can't lie to me, she's as excited as a kid in Christmas Eve" I giggled, then stood up "I still miss you, but I'm ok now, honey. I really love Tom and I'm quite sure he's the one for me now. So... I let you go now, Jason. I hope you're happy, wherever you are"

I took another deep breath and walked back to the car. Alex half-smiled at me again and gently touched my arm once, a silent question in her eyes, as Tom put his arm around my shoulder.

"I'm ok" I said.

"Let's go, then" Danny said "Last thing we need is Alex peeing in the car"

She slapped him in the back again and he just laughed; truth is they get on perfectly, they are great friends, but he loves bothering her.

Alex took the passenger seat, while the boys took the back seats. Tom closed the car's door before I could get it and pulled me into his arms.

"You don't have to do this" he said "I'll understand. We can come back"

"I want to do this, Tom" I looked up and smiled at him "I _am _fine. After all, I'm with you"

He smiled from hear to hear and leaned down to kiss him. I loved that he was taller than me. I loved the way he kissed me. I loved how sweet he was, how he understood everything without asking questions or making things complicated. I loved every single little detail about him. I loved _him_.

Tom opened the door for me again and I looked back at Jason's grave for the last time. I could almost see him smiling at me, proud of himself, saying 'I told you so'. I wish I could slap him in the back of his head. So this is how Alex feels when I'm always right, huh?

I knew what he would have said if he had been there, it was as if I could even hear him saying it was ok, that he understood too, that it was time for me to go.

Once again, I looked up at Tom and smiled, really feeling it now, really excited about the future for the first time in a long time.

"Let's go. I can't wait" I said.

"For what?" he asked.

"Spending my life with you"

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**THE END**

Here's the summary for the next story, it's supposed to be shorter than this one and one of the character's named after you, as I promised :) So here it is...

**Dougie knows that his family is the reason why his past few girlfriends ran away from him. When he finally meets THE one for him and she forces him to introduce her to his family, will she run away too after the most disastrous Christmas ever?**_  
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